Slayers: Redemption!
by Naga Shark
Summary: "Luna Inverse, accompanied by Fillia, Naga and Lina, has been tasked with a mysterious deadly force which destroys all life while being brought face to face with her personal feelings in a race against time to once again save the world. Follow Luna she she discovers the miracle of love while she battles monsters, demons, and worst of all, her pride!"
1. Episode 0 and Episode 1

Slayers; Redemption: Prologue and Episode 1: "Deathwind! The Incurable Disease?"

**Slayers: Redemption**

**by**

**Yuri Futanari **

**and**

**Naga Shark**

**Prologue:**

It was a cheerfully bright spring day in Zephilia where 2 brothers were digging a well in an open field when they came upon the heavy stone rooftop of a buried structure.

Returning to the village to ask for help, they entered the tavern where Luna Inverse served the patrons, and rounded up some unemployed travelers then returned to the site with plans to unearth the structure and take a look inside...

As the day wears on, the twenty men eagerly dig away with mule drawn plows, oxen pulling carts, baskets and spades, gradually unearthing an ornately carved deep green marble structure with what seems like fine veins of gold through it.

It becomes obvious that this is a crypt or a burial vault of some extremely wealthy person from long ago and they reason among themselves that surely it contains buried treasure!

The door to the structure is short but heavily constructed, and has many soil stained talismans secured to it by means of some resinous material. Each crossing the sill of the door, as if binding the door from being opened.

On each talisman is written characters of some strange language none of the men understand, and being simple travelers and not ones to be wary of magic or curses, they soon tear through the old paper talismans in effort to pry open the door.

As the last of the talismans is torn asunder, a mysterious fog quickly begins to seep through the crevices in the door sill...

Heedlessly, the men try pushing the handleless door with their full strength in hopes of discovering vast riches.

Merely minutes into their efforts however, the mysterious fog has taken its toll. Writhing upon the ground, crying and coughing up blood in agony, flush with the sweat of a burning fever, the men nearest the door lay gasping their last breaths while those further out begin crawling toward the village little better off.

The strongest of them makes it a mere half mile toward the village on hands and knees before collapsing into a comatose state...

As the warm spring day turned to evening, a breeze picked up, blowing leaves, flowers and the mysterious fog in the direction of Zephilia...

**Episode 1:**

**Deathwind! The Incurable Disease?**

Luna continued serving tables every day as usual, but she noticed a peculiar drop in the number of patrons the normally crowded tavern had.

One day a young man stumbled like a drunken man into the tavern looking very sickly and feverish shouting, "Run for your lives! A plague has invaded Zephilia!" before stumbling back out in the direction of the next building on the street.

A murmur arose from the tavern patrons and people were already out in the streets screaming and scooping up their children, hiding indoors from the words being shouted in the streets by the afflicted young man.

Finally collapsing in the center of town near the fountain, he lay there coughing blood onto the street, eyes glazed, unable to continue on.

A certain elderly lady dressed in subdued but elegant attire strode casually with a rather regal air up to the young man. As her pine green dress with white ruffles stopped swaying with her purposeful stride, she carefully prodded the young man with the end of her cane only to see a strange pale violet light flash off the end of her cane leaving a hole in the man's shoulder as deep as a thumb tip.

Blood begins to flow rapidly and unchecked from the gaping wound, only to mysteriously evaporate on the ground... Soon the breathing stops and the blood stops flowing, the indentation continuing to make the dead man's body simply cease to exist at a visible rate.

"This is no normal infection!" she declares in alarm.

The hole now continues to grow deeper and wider while blood cascades from the gaping wound until the heart stops beating

Stepping back quickly, Laura Magnus casts a ward-wind spell and then uses ray-wing to fly away from the immobile body as the suddenly activated curse plague seems to utterly dissolve the poor young man into thin air.

**Ep 1, chapter 2**

Luna came home not terribly tired because there were so few patrons and the town was buttoned up tight, but she was not terribly worried about it because she didn't seem to see it as her problem.

When she stepped in the door and hung her shawl on the peg nearby, she did not immediately realize that her mother and grandmother were both standing in the kitchen staring at her expectantly.

Humming to herself, Luna proceeded to her room obliviously and change into her off work clothes consisting of a rather elegant dress much like her mother and grandmother wore.

Coming back from her room and waltzing merrily into the kitchen she finally see them and stops short. "What?" she asks confused and slightly suspicious because of the looks on their faces.

"You prance around here like there is nothing in the world wrong while there is a _plague_ besieging our lands!" Lana sternly scolded.

"I saw that." Luna replied almost dumbly, clearly unconcerned.

"What kind of servant of _Ceiphied_ are you to just nonchalantly turn your back on the people?"

"The kind who works a job as a waitress at the local tavern mother," she said seemingly clueless, "What else _would_ you expect me to do?" acting incredulous to the idea that she may in some manner be responsible for anything unless Ceiphied himself commanded it of her.

"I did not raise my children to wander around not caring what happens to the people of this world young lady, and I will not begin to tolerate it at this point either!" snapped her mother.

Grandma Laura nodded and harrumphed in agreement.

"So you want me to call on Ceiphied for some miracle?" Luna asked defensively.

"I want you to go out there and find an answer to what is happening and why." Lana replied.

"I don't see how it is any of our business," Luna coolly replied.

About that time, a young man who tended the grapes in the orchard burst into the house nearly falling, panting heavily and yelling frantically, "Mistress Inverse! Mistress Inverse!" terror filling the young man's eyes, "Master Antonio has collapsed! I think its the plague!"

Fixing a dead eyes stare on Luna, "Don't come back to this house without a cure!" Lana coldly proclaimed.

**Ep 1, Chapter 3**

Luna Inverse was not fond of traveling, and did not own any traveling clothing, but not wanting to go with only her main outfit, she packed a few dresses and some night wear, collected her savings and weapons, not sure how long she would be away, but from the sounds of it, as long as it would take.

Not wishing to come back to Zephilia in need of a new job, her first stop was the inn where she formally announced she must take leave until the plague was cured.

"I have no objection Mistress Luna," the inn's owner Alyth replied in her calm wise voice, "After all," she pointed out while slowly wiping down the shiny bar top, "If this keeps up, you won't have a job to come to because we'll all be dead."

Some of the weary travelers looked up from their meals with droopy sad and hopeless looks on their faces as they seemed to halfheartedly poke at the food despite it being legendary as the greatest cuisine in the northern region.

Her husband Bruno ducked his immense head down to peer out from the kitchen window and added, "Yeah and its going to get mighty boring around here with no crazy bar frights to liven this place up at night!" with a roaring laugh that filled the nearly vacant dining hall.

A couple of patrons tried to smile weakly at the big man and he looked back at them compassionately.

As the gravity of the situation bore down more deeply on the fiery young woman, she drew a deep breath and let out a sigh, then leaned over and gave the buxom older woman a warm hug and said to both of them, "You two take care of your selves!" and as she turned toward the door, she looked over her shoulder and said, "As the Knight of Ceiphied I shall find the cure for this!"

One could see Alyth behind the bar waving, and Bruno's massive lone hand waving from the kitchen portal as she stepped forth from the inn forward on her new quest and first ever long journey away from her beloved homeland. Above her the tavern's brightly painted shingle "Alyth's All Welcoming Inn."

The lonely street with shuttered windows a grim reminder that this was no ordinary day in the village she had grown up in.

**Ep. 1, Chapter 4**

Luna could not ask anybody but the village physician about the plague any more because the town was already sealed shut and most of the village was already abandoned. Most of the people in the village were at the livery where as many as two hundred townsfolk were laying on makeshift cots of straw and bedsheets from the clinic, Luna had

The village physician could only tell her that magic healing spells only advanced the plague and that once a spell was cast, the only thing he could do at that point was to invoke a spell reversal and give the patient sedatives to slow their bodily function.

Somehow, by sedating the victims with the eye fluids of the Taricha newt, he had slowed their decline by slowing their metabolism to a very low rate bordering on death its self.

He was taking as much sedative as he could manage because he had to assume he was infected as well, and had only to remain alert to service any who came to him in search of help or he would have already administered enough sedative to put himself into a state of near death the same as his patients.

The only useful information she could get from the physician about the source was that it seemed to have begun not long after a pair of young brothers discovered a small crypt like structure north of the village about half a day's journey, and that none of the actual travelers who went to help them unearth the discovery or the brothers themselves ever made it back to town.

Leaving the physician's side at the livery with a record first ever time thanking anybody, Luna had to figure out a solution and soon or this would literally become a ghost town, and who knew how far this plague would spread!

Hurrying along the path to the north, the discovered that it forked four ways about a hour out of town.

"_Well this isn't very good," she frowned at the fork in the road, "I can't spend forever traveling for days looking for the source of this plague, and asking Ceiphied for information will leave me in such a state I'll be even worse, so I have to look for something..._" she thought to herself while looking all around for anything to give her a clue...

As she scanned around, focusing her mental chi on her eyesight to give herself additional distance of view up each road, it became evident that the road second from the right seemed to exhibit an unnatural deadness about it for such a vibrant spring as they had been experiencing this year.

"_Hmmmmm.._." she pondered, "_Dead foliage here in the height of spring...this must be the path._"

As she proceeded along this path, the dead spots in the grass filled in totally until there was no living grass and the trees along the sides of the path were showing brown spots.

The grass finally seemed to be so shriveled up as to be nothing but wisps and soon even that gave way to bare ground.

As she crested the next hill, she found a skeleton laying in the path in clothing, and some dead ravens laying around it with their eyes missing, and not a single fly or odor could be detected.

In fact, there was not a single sound of animals anywhere and the deadness seemed to proceed into the forest, and many of the nearby trees were bare sticks of white wood which seemed to be turning slowly to dust even as she watched.

As she probed at the corpse with her powerful magically infused sword however, a strange violet light seemed to erupt from the point of contact and in seemingly seconds with a strange hissing sound rapidly consumed the skeleton into nothingness before her very eyes, and as it destroyed the bones, the cloth in contact with the bones also appeared to 'burn' away with the same smokeless violet light, leaving a skeleton shaped hole in the now flattened out clothing.

Reflexively leaping away in horror and revulsion, she carefully inspected the tip of her sword to see if it had suffered any damage, but apparently, its magical barriers kept whatever was there from devouring it.

"This is some wicked evil stuff!" she exclaimed aloud, "This is no mere plague, this is something supernatural and magical!"

As she sheathed her sword, she proceeded along the path, finding more and more crumbling skeletons in clothing, clearly more decayed by the unknown cause as she went.

By midday, she came to a point where the entire forest was missing for a hundred paces on each side of the path and only metallic items such as coins and weapons remained unaffected.

"_Wow,_" she worried to herself, "_This stuff destroys everything eventually!_" As she looked around it came to her, "This stuff could in time literally destroy the entire world!"

The bones were gone, the clothing was shreds, holes lay in the ground where trees once stood, and she could see in the distance a large hole in the ground with the roof of a structure barely visible near its center.

Coming to the lip of the pit, she saw only crumbling pieces of metal around a seemingly impervious stone crypt where pieces of tattered paper hung loosely on the edges of the doorway obviously at one time blocking the opening of the door.

There was a ramp dug from the side of the pit down to the middle where people once walked in and out of the pit.

There seemed a slight odor to the air and she became uneasy because she was aware that this cursed force was able to destroy so many things that normal plagues would never touch.

Testing her theory, she drew her blade and the air around it sizzled and glowed violet as something seemed to almost be feeding off the power in her blade...

"That's it!" she cried aloud, "Its feeding off of energy!" looking around and sheathing her sword again, "I'm only alive because of the divine protection of Ceiphied!"

Walking up to the torn talismans of warding and sealing, she could see why the whole event happened now. "These men got greedy and came here thinking they were going to find a king's buried treasure only to open up a Pandora's Box of sorts, releasing a cursed..._something _on themselves and the whole world in the process!"

Attempting to read the talismans proved impossible as she had no idea what language they were written in.

"I need to find somebody who knows magic who can..." she paused, "Hey... I know _just_ the person for this job!"


	2. Episode 2

**Episode 2:  
"Reunions! What on earth is going on?"**

[there is a recap of last episode's events narrated by Luna at this point]

"Right!" Luna thought as she proceeded for the one person most likely to know where Lina was last seen, "Fillia has developed quite the reputation with her little Vase and Mace shop there by the shore..."

"Well, it looks like I have to take a ship to get to her present location, so off we go to the port of Zephilia," she said as she headed for the port. "_Along the way, I'll maybe get her a nice little garnish for that adorable pink ribbon she wears!_" she thought to her self, then suddenly catching herself, "_Nooooooo! Think pure thoughts! Think pure thoughts! Think pure thoughts!_"

Still, when she arrived, she found herself overwhelmingly compelled to go to that little shop and blushed deeply as she found herself buying the little hand stitched golden silk rose surrounded by frilly pink lace... She felt she couldn't help it, it so deeply reminded her of that simply _adorable_ dragon girl with the gorgeous blue eyes, that golden tan skin, that long blond hair, and that...unhhhhh...that _tail_!

Luna found herself shuddering, her heart beating uncontrollably hard and her palms were beginning to sweat. "_I simply must control myself!_" she reprimanded herself, continuing to struggle with her inner conflict.

So Luna set sail from the Port of Zephilia for the seaside village of Tenor where she would inquire of Fillia as to the whereabouts of Lina, and bestow upon her the adorable little garnish she had acquired.

**Ep 2, chapter 2**

As Fillia had developed the habit of prayer and meditation, she would set aside part of her day every day to simply focus and meditate and listen for Ceiphied's inspiration.

As she was deep in a trance-like state, an awareness came to her. The awareness came to her quite cryptically as it always did, never very specific, but always certain.

"_An Inverse of the Great Clan Magnus is the key to the survival of your people._" came to her awareness in voiceless words while she meditated. "An Inverse is the key to the survival of the golden dragon race" she murmured softly yet audible as she knelt in reverent meditation, eyes closed...then, opening her eyes looking around in a bit of wonderment as to the meaning, she expounded, "An Inverse of the Great Clan Magnus.." looking down and around pondering the meaning, "An Inverse of The Great Clan Magnus..." she sighed, "Who could that be?" frowning softly and with a hint of sadness, "I only know of two Inverses," raising her hand to her chin and pointing to it while looking skyward as if propping her head on her index finger, "There's only Luna and Lina," looking back down and pressing her index finger downward with her other index finger as if to be counting them off, "But if they have any siblings I would not know..." then rubbing her chin again, "There are the parents of course, but I'm pretty sure its not them...hmmmm..."

Her thoughts were interrupted by Jillas's peculiarly accented voice, "Boss," he came in, "Gravos said we were to polish the inside of the vases being sent to Seyruun, but they're awefool smawll teu bie reychyin inta with me ahrms..."

"Yuh," Gravos followed, "Dat's whut huy sauhd thu me yusturdey wan't it?"

"Huh?" Fillia blinked, lost in thought, "No, no, no, no!" she scowled, "Its the ones for Zephilia that are to be polished inside!"

"Oh, no, Miss Boss Laydeye," Jilias cringed with big worried eye, "I think those went out earlier this morning..."

Bursting into a fit of anger, "Then go get them back and hurry!" she stood bolt upright, her tail suddenly standing straight up like an arrow, "We CAN'T afford for that order to be wrong!"

**Ep 2, Chapter 3**

In the deep, black walled, cold and damp dungeon of New Xoanna, muffled sobs of despair could be faintly heard echoing through the cells as a lone figure lay slumped on the floor, hands high over head chained to the wall, a thick leather mask hiding their face and gagging their mouth.

Her face was half covered, but one could easily recognize the long legged, scantily clad, buxom long haired brunette with the flagrant hair style and piercing midnight blue eyes.

It was Gracia Ul Naga Seyruun, eldest daughter of Crown Prince Philionel El Di Seyruun, condemned to die by the terrible cruel fate of being burned at the stake as a murderous witch and a heretic against the false monster-god 'The Monsterous Zomelgustar.'

At high noon of the day of the Summer Solstice Festival she was to be burnt in the city square of New Xoanna before the whole city for the crimes she was accused of, and there was never, nor would there ever be a trial or period of examination where she would be allowed to defend her self.

She had sat in here for two full miserable years in this dark hell of a dungeon, emaciated, rat bitten, miserable and with chafed wrists from the incessant rub of the magically crafted iron cuffs which prevented her from casting spells and the gag mask which prevented her from speaking spells.

She was forced to drink disgusting gruel through a hole in the mask barely large enough for the task and it was also the only place she could breathe from as well.

Life was looking more grim for poor Gracia every day as the summer solstice drew ever nearer.

"Why did I ever leave Lina's side?" she moaned inwardly, "I would have never come back this way or stumbled into that bunch of thieving bandits!" Outwardly she continued to sob dismally.

A rat scurried nearby and sniffed at her to see if she was edible, and with what little strength she had, she lurched at it as far as her chains would allow, to frighten it away so it would not try to eat her right where she slumped.

"Oh Lina," she sobbed, "I swear if I ever see you again..."

**Ep 2, Chapter 4**

As Luna set foot on the dock of Tenor, she could see it was a relatively peaceful seaside city, bustling with trade and tourism.

Luna had never gone this far abroad, and seldom even left her home nation of Zephilia.

So it was strange to her to notice an ox drawn cart being brought to the dock with the destination written on the lading tag of "Her Majesty Lucille Belle, 1 Palace Lane, Queendom of Zephilia."

"A package all the way out here for Her Eternal Majesty?" she asked to herself in surprise.

No sooner than it had passed up the lading ramp then two unlikely characters came running along, clearly in a panic yelling, "Wait! Wait! That package is not ready yet! Wait!"

But clearly, the load master was not concerned with their problems, only that his ship was being laden to its fullest before sailing because as with any merchant vessel, their profit was in the fees garnered for delivering goods. It was none of their concern how they came to the vessel, as long as they departed it in the exact same condition, and exactly on time.

"Oh..." the orange fox man beast slumped down, "Now we're done for!" he wailed, "Boss is gonna kill us for this!"

"Which mace you tink she gunna use on uhs dis time?" the larger gray beast man asked in a dull, droll voice, not too worried it seemed, but not too brightly either.

"What do you mean 'which mace is do I think she is gonna use'?!" the fox beast man angrily snapped at him, "Who cares which one she uses? They awl hurt!"

Because when she uses the one she has under her skirt," the gray skinned one replied, "She has to lift her skirt and you see her pink ribbons." he chuckled in a rather lecherous manner, which suddenly produced several results at once.

Firstly, Luna realized it was Fillia the man beast was referring to, and secondly, it was that sensuous dragoness tail of hers, and thirdly he was clearly a total pervert!

"What did you just sayyyyyyy?" Luna uncontrollably erupts on the gray man beast as she draws out the Holy Sword Einlanzer in indignant rage.

"Oh laydeye!" the fox man steps forward on his knees pleadingly, "Please down't tayke eet owt on 'eem, 'e's 'ot teu braght yoo know!"

"A beautiful holy virgin Priestess of the Fire Dragon King should never be dishonored with such sullied filthy thoughts!" she declared loud enough the whole dock shook and people cowered down in fear.

But poor dumb Gravos simply replied, "She's no priestess anymore..." with an actual sad look in his eyes, not even aware of how close to being killed he may be. "She was real sad when all them draguhns died and stuff..."

"What are you saying?" Luna suddenly demanded in shock.

"She renounced her title as priestess, Miss Lady." Jilias replied sadly yet still in fear for Gravo's life, "Right while all that killin was goin on, she said she wasn't gonna be no priestess to no more 'cause of all the bad things her people was doin' while they was alyve an awl."

"I-I-I never knew!" Luna faltered, looking around in shock trying to grasp the situation, "I must see her at once!" looking down at the cowering Jilias, "Where is she now?"

"She's kinda sore at us at the moment Miss Laydeye," Jilias nervously protested, "She says we can't return without those vases that just want on board that ship there..." pointing fearfully at the crated vases which were being lowered from the cart into the ship's hold.

""Well," she had a new subject to be furious with them for, "Why aren't you busy getting them back for her?"  
"Because that guy there on the ship says we cain't 'ave 'em back no how without we's goes all the way to the other shore and pays to haves 'em shipped back again!" then remembering his manners, Jilias remebers to say, "Buy theh wey, pleeze furgive me fur noawt introwdoosing us!" licking his lips pensively, "Dis here is Gravos, and awyme Jilias. We werk four Miss Fillia now that she ain't no longer a priestess and awl. She's been muytie good tew us, seein as all we done put her and them others thru and everything..." hanving his head in shame.

As Luna turned toward the load master and glaring with fury, he gulped in fear and suddenly shouts to the derrick operator, "Hey! Bring that load of vases back onto the cart right away!" "


	3. Episode 3

**Episode 3**

"**Regrets! What Is This Strange Feeling?"**

As Luna leads just before Jillas and Gravos, Fillia pulls back a curtain from a window near the entry, seeing Luna, she leaps out the door squealing in delight and tackles the unsuspecting knight in her enthusiasm.

Fillia mashed her face into Luna's bosom smiling like a cat with a new toy while Luna blushed redly unsure of what was going on.

"Whoa" marveled Jillas, "Didn't see that one coming!"

"Looks like Miss Fillia really likes the laydeye here!" Gravos mused with perverse admiration.

Suddenly looking up, Fillia leaps up, "Hey!" glaring at Gravos as he suddenly wilts before her glare, "What are you looking at ?!"

"Eeet's nawtheeng Miss Fillia Boss!" Jillas covered for Gravos while pulling him toward the cart, "Come awn Gravos! Weye gots ta finish polishin deyse vases beyfour dat ship leaves ayt soohnseht!"

"Uhhh...humph!" Luna straightened her self out still blushing, "I'm...ummm...happy to see you too." she managed to say shyly but trying not to seem that way.

"Ummm..." Fillia looked down at the ground equally shy and embarrassed, "I'm sorry for that outburst."

"Oh, no-no, its quite okay!" she waved it off chuckling disingenuously, worried she had offended Fillia, "Really! Why, I even got you a present!"

"You did?" Fillia looked up surprised.

"He-heh, sure!" and she pulled out the gold foil box with a pink ribbon and bow on it from her travel bag, handing it to Fillia.

Opening it, she pulled out the beautiful golden rose with pink lace and blushed so deeply... "It-it-its...where am I supposed to wear it...?"

"Oh..umm...well..." more nervous laughter, "I was thinking it would go nicely with your pink bow and all..uh-hum..."

Fillia's eyes grew wide and she blushed even more deeply...

"Ummmm..." Luna became worried, "Did I do something wrong?"

"Well..." Fillia replied shyly, "No, but..." and she spun around, "I forgot something I need to do!" and she dashed into her shop and all the way to the back, where she slammed her bedroom door, leaning against it panting, and looking down at the golden rose garnish, thinking about where Luna was indicating it was intended to be placed...

Luna sighed, "I guess that didn't go well," and she trudged to the shop steps and plopped down glumly.

**Ep 3, Chapter 2**

It was 2 long painful years ago now...

Naga and Lina had yet another petty argument and split up once again, angry and swearing to never see each other alive forever as they always seemed to be doing...

Only this time it looked as if it really was the last time and really would be forever.

Naga heard rumors that she picked up some really handsome and really dumb guy who followed her everywhere and did anything she asked of him, taking all of her abuse and never parting from her side. She was furious then and she couldn't believe she had lost Lina to some stupid man...a MORON no less!

She heard all of this from that obnoxious wanna be queen Martina of this gods forsaken dictatorship and her stupid jerk of a husband. She was so mad she told the bitch off and stormed out of the palace in a fit of rage.

As usual, she went out drinking, and then sought some place to cry a while and then sleep it all off.

Sadly, that night, she happened to witness some bandits trying to rob a man, and she was so angry she was delighted at this ripe opportunity to let off some steam by dealing these lowlifes some well deserved justice.

During the ensuing battle, the bandit leader grabbed the poor victim and shoved him directly into the path of the ice arrow she had aimed for him. The poor man had already been beaten so badly he needed hospitalization, and she could not un-cast the ice bolt, which plunged into his chest, narrowly missing his heart.

The commotion was heard by the city guards who ran toward the din.

Seeing the city guards rushing up, the bandits dropped the man and turned tail, leaving him to collapse where he stood.

As the man fell, she rushed up toward him while the bandits fled and the city guards got there just as he was whispering, "The Magistrate's men..."

"What about them?" Naga asked the weakened man, but he sighed and passed away.

As he slumped to the ground, there was blood from his back as well as his front, only the blood from his back was clearly a knife wound which did strike his heart and was clearly the fatal wound.

She could see that when the bandit leader had shoved the man into the ice arrow, he was doing so from the hilt of a dirk shoved into the poor man's back and through his heart. The man never had a chance.

Seeing the blood, however, as soon as it sank into her head that it was indeed blood, she straightway collapsed.

Waking up in this dungeon, she did not even see or hear from anybody but the guards who did not speak to her for the first month!

And when she did hear from somebody, it was this nasty looking old man who was the magistrate of the city and he was here to simply say that the sentence was pronounced upon her and that the date of execution was yet to be set.

She had been rotting in here in this dank dark stench without so much as a bath or a change of clothes in 2 years already. They were not merely trying to kill her, but trying to destroy her very soul in the process.

Still, she had the strongest constitution and the deepest well of hope of anyone who had ever been cast into this dungeon and was far from broken! Steeling herself with this knowledge, she straightened up her head and with a look of fierce and set inner strength and determination.

"They'll never break Naga the White Serpent!" she vowed to herself, "Even if I never live to see Lina again, I will never let them see me break!"

**Ep 3, Chapter 3**

Fillia finally calmed down enough to come back out of her room, apologize to Luna for her abrupt behavior earlier, and asked if she would please come inside and join her for dinner.

They talked and Luna explained her purpose for being here, seeking to find Lina and find the cure for this inexplicable plague which was mysteriously killing all life and even making it completely vanish from existence in the process.

"That's horrid!" Fillia gasped, "I certainly will help you every way I possibly can!"

"Well," Luna replied, "If you could maybe point me in the direction of my sister's last known whereabouts, that would be a tremendous help..."

"Well," Fillia replied honestly, "When we parted, it was in a field not many leagues from here, and all she said was that her and Gourry were going to continue seeking adventure and fortune."

"How long ago was that?" Luna asked.

"Half a year now." Fillia replied while pouring tea, "And they never write or anything, so I have no way of guessing what they are up to now..."

"Well,"Luna sighed over her mug of hot tea, "I guess I have no choice but to get a huge migraine and ask Ceiphied's directions in this..." she said to herself...only she was so tired, she didn't realize she said it out loud.

"You speak to Ceiphied directly?" Fillia wondered with a bright and hopeful look in her eyes.

"Huh?" Luna blinked in alarm, "Did I just say that?"

"Well," Fillia replied, "Not in so many words."

"_Oh no_," Luna groaned to herself, "_all these years of keeping it a secret and here I go blurting it out to Fillia...I hope she doesn't know what this means and start demanding I ask for answers to something_!" then out loud, "Well, thank you for the help you have given, I should be off so I can scout around for some more information on their whereabouts."

"But I could help!" Fillia suddenly blurted, "And its been really lonely here in this shop." she sounded forlorn, "All I do is work from daybreak to sunset and then sit in my room and meditate until I sleep. Its such a dull life," she sighed, "I really could use a break."

"But who would run the shop?" Luna asked.

For the most part, it fairly well runs its self, and these two seem to do pretty well on the simple tasks, so as long as I don't take on any special commissions, its pretty routine around here. Besides. I can teleport, and I can fly! We would make much better time and cover much more distance than you could ever do walking."

"Well what about that egg looking thing there in that little baby basket?" she pointed to the basket with the embryo of Val Gaav in the middle of her living room.

"Oh, Val..." she chuckled, "He won't hatch for another twenty years at the soonest!"

"Oh" she said, "I suppose I don't know that much about the dragon races." seeming a bit subdued.

"Well then," Luna pondered it for a minute, "It sounds as if I would be a fool not to have you along!"

**Ep 3, Chapter 4**

Luna was fast asleep on the couch, Jillas and Gravos were in their bunks in their room, and Fillia went around dousing all the lamps before retiring to her own room.

As she softly closed her door and got ready for bed, she picked up the shiny golden rose blossom and gazed at it for quite some time while she sat at her dresser before her mirror.

As she looked at the rose, and then looked past it to her own reflection, she seemed to have a soft, deep and yet quite confusing feeling moving within her.

"_What is this I am feeling?_" she asked to herself, looking at her own reflection, and then down again at the golden rose, "_Why do I have this strange feeling in my stomach_?"

Hesitantly, she coiled her tail out from under her night gown around in front of her, and gingerly, and timidly, slipped the elastic lace band of the garnish over the heart shaped tip of her tail until the piece rested over the center of the bow, making indeed a very splendid and beautiful combination.

"Its so beautiful," she sighed softly to her self, "I wonder," looking along her tail and then back in the mirror, "I wonder if this is what love feels like?" a very small tear seemed to glimmer from her eye, and she dabbed it gingerly away with a handkerchief.

"_Oh, silly me_," she chided herself, "_I'm the very last of my race. There is no hope of love for me now._" and with a sigh, she rose, went to her bed, and as she pulled the covers up, she snuffed out the lamp.


	4. Episode 4

**Episode 4**

"**Star Struck! Wishing for Reality!"**

Fillia spent some time making sure everything was ready for this journey, carefully checking the warehouse, the kilns, making sure enough food was on hand for her two assistants, and finally kissing little Val's shell and saying, "You be a good little boy and don't give your uncles any trouble now."

Even though the egg did not speak, it seemed to almost imperceptibly jiggle just the tiniest amount.

Luna looked a little surprised at the egg's motion, but did not say anything about it, "OK," she did ask though, "Are we all set now?"

"Yes," Fillia announced confidently, "We are ready to leave now." and with that, she incanted her teleportation spell and they vanished from the room.

Appearing moments later at the last location Fillia had seen them, the two gazed around at the countryside.

"It sure is beautiful here," Luna observed, gazing out over the coast from the cliff line, "I've never seen the ocean from such a point."

"Oh," Fillia, gazed outwards beside her, "Yes, it is indeed beautiful."

"I could see having a cottage in a place like this." Luna breathed in the clean clear ocean air.

"That..." she paused, "That would be very nice indeed." she involuntarily sighed at the idea of her tending a home as a wife while little dragon children ran screaming by playing tag and giggling, before she snapped back to reality. "But I suppose we had best be searching for Lina so we can find the cure to this plague!"

Sighing aloud, "You're right," Luna agreed, "So..." looking around at the more local geography, "Which way did they go from here?"

Fillia pointed along a narrow path in the grass which led southeast down into a wide but shallow valley leading diagonally inland gradually leaving the seaside behind.

Transmuting into her dragon form, she lowered her neck to let Luna on and leapt into the sky following close to the ground along the trail.

**Ep 4, Chapter 2**

Theolis Rhystan, royal magistrate of New Xoanna was not a man to be trivialized. For his young age, he was very clever and worldly. To add to this, he had the appearance of being much older, which he cultivated to its fullest extent. This gave him a look of wisdom and trustworthiness he truly did not deserve.

He had worked his way carefully and shrewdly through the ranks and did whatever it took to gain each new level of power on his way to the ultimate goal. Today he paced in his private chambers while waiting an audience with Queen Martina concerning the exact timing of the execution of the nuisance Naga the White Serpent.

"_I'm very very near the completion of my plans_!" he ranted gleefully to himself, slamming his clenched fist eagerly into his palm, "_Soon I shall be king of New Xoanna and from there, the world_!"

"_First I shall kill off this witness_," he pondered, "_Then I shall devise a terrible accident to befall the Queen and her stupid husband_!"

"_I know, I'll-!_" he began to have a brilliantly devious idea when the palace page interrupted.

"Sir Magistrate," the page boy knocked, "The Queen will see you now."

"Yes, yes." he acknowledged aloud in a soft, grandfatherly voice he had practiced for some years now, then to himself, "_Stupid fool, how dare you interrupt my brilliant plans with your rash interruptions? You're also on my list!_" then again aloud, in a strained cheerful tone, "I'm on my way immediately!"

**Ep 4, Chapter 3**

The pair of them sped along the valley and up onto a plateau which was interspersed grassland and small wooded sections, finally dropping into another valley where a medium sized village could be seen, and where obvious marks of destruction indicated Lina surely was in some form of altercation once again, so Luna called to Fillia over the rushing wind in her face, "I see signs of Lina's handiwork below. We should drop down and ask about her there!"

Not wanting to be seen in between forms, Fillia veered off to one side of the valley where a thick grove of trees grew, and swooped down into it before transforming back into her human shape.

"OK." Luna declared, "We should ask the people what they know about her then!"

"Right!" Fillia replied with determination.

As they moved about the town, they were saddened to get a diversity of answers to their questions.

As the day wore on, they seemed to only get further and further from a solid lead on where the mischievous young sorceress would have gone next from here.

As they met up at the site of the old tavern where people were in the process of rebuilding it, Luna sighed and said, "It seems that everybody in this town has a completely different story of what took place here!"

"I got the same thing!" Fillia replied disheartened. "The more people I asked, the crazier the answers Io got and the less sense it made!"

"Something must definitely be up in this town!" Luna muttered, "Something here is just not right."

"What do you think we should do then?" Fillia asked meekly.

"I think we should find out what is messing with these people's heads and just maybe then we can figure out what really happened here with my sister!" she declared in a very annoyed tone.

**Ep 4, Chapter 4**

Without an inn to weary travelers had to decide what to do for the night.

"Well," Luna declared, "It would seem that the only inn in the entire town was blasted to bits, and is not near ready to re open, I guess that means we have to find some other place to bed down for the night."

"That definitely appears to be the case," Fillia sadly concurred. "I wonder if there might be a shopkeeper with a guest room we could rent." she mused aloud.

"That would be a great idea," Luna considered, "If these people's strange behavior did not give me the creeps so..."

Sighing again in resignation, Fillia replied, "They are indeed very strange acting," looking around, "Maybe we should return to the grove we landed at and camp there for the night.

"I think you're right." Luna agreed, "At least there we would have a chance to see somebody coming and be prepared for them."

With that, the two girls set off for the grove of trees they set down at earlier in the day.

Laying out their bedrolls and lighting a fire, they ate a meal of dried meats and fruits and drank water from their canteens. Laying in their bedrolls, staring up at the moonlit sky, Luna looked over at Fillia and asked, "Do dragons ever wish on stars?"

Fillia frowned and mulled it over, "I was a priestess, and I lived in a temple all of my life since I was hatched. I have never really thought about stars before..."

"Oh." Luna considered her answer, "I never thought about it like that." Looking back up at the stars and at the moon, lifting her hand as if to reach out and take hold of it, she declared, "I used to wish upon falling stars, even though I knew it was a silly tradition with no real meaning." then turning over and propping herself up on one elbow, she asked Fillia, "What would you wish for, if you had one wish you could be granted?"

Fillia gazed back at the raven haired young woman, with her intense eyes flickering in the firelight, not sure what to say, but willing to give it a very sincere effort, "Well..." and she felt that strange tug in her chest again, making her think about two seemingly related yet impossible wishes to wish for, "All my life I devoted myself to the welfare of my people, and denied my self everything." taking a deep breath, "But now they are all gone, denying me both my duty, and my one hope."

"What would that be?" Luna asked quietly.

"I can't decide which I want more." Fillia said in a far off, almost childlike voice, "Would I chose the welfare of my people, or to find love?"

"Love..." Luna found her heart leapt in her chest at the mere word. "That is something I am never allowed to have." she declared softly with a note of sadness.

"I think we are both cursed." Fillia said with a tear in her eye, "Cursed to live forever alone."

Luna laid back on her bedroll and looked sadly up at the stars once again, then, with a long sigh, "I believe you are probably right." and with that, she rolled over away from the fire and said, "Good night Fillia."

Fillia looked over at the back of Luna, her raven hair glistening in the firelight, feeling the deep tugging sensation in her chest, "Good night Luna," then on an unexplainable impulse, "Sweet dreams... Lady Inverse."


	5. Episode 5

**Episode 5**

"**Midsummer Night's Dream? This Place is a Nightmare!"**

Luna was laying in a field of waist high flowers it seemed...

As she looked up, the limited view of the sky was filled with puffy white clouds slowly drifting lazily by on a quiet but breezy spring afternoon. The flowers all swayed softly in the breeze.

As she lay there, she heard a beautiful melodic voice humming softly some place not too far away.

She sat up, then got on her knees, looking just above the flowers, she saw a simply beautiful golden tail waving around, much as you would see a cat's tail wave and flicker, with a bright cheerful pink ribbon just underneath a distinctly heart shaped tip.

The tail was rather large, possibly 8 feet long, and seemed to be following the beautiful melodic voice through the flowers.

As she watched, the tail would wave to and fro, occasionally flickering or straightening up, then resuming a rather seductive, almost dance like wave once again...

Suddenly feeling the need to relieve her bladder, she felt like she would have to ruin this beautiful sight, so she chose to press against her self to resist the urge to go.

As she watched, the tail seemed to be getting nearer and nearer, as if the owner was either unaware of her presence, or was intentionally, yet without any sense of urgency, coming for her.

As the lovely golden tail came closer and closer, she seemed to need more and more to relieve herself and she pressed harder and harder to prevent an accident.

Yet as the pressure built and the tail neared, the pressure seemed to change and get different, and the more intense it got, the more she pressed.

Suddenly Fillia's head popped up from the flowers and gasped: "What is THAT?!"

Something went berserk inside her and Luna lurched awake gasping in alarm.

Her covers had slid off her in the night and she had thrashed around quite a bit while apparently pressing both hands hard against her groin.

There was a wet spot with a bump rising up out of it like a little finger...

And Fillia was gasping in astonishment, face red as crimson.

Wailing in dismay, Luna leapt up and sped off into the bushes both in horror and embarrassment.

"What in the world happened to me?!" she gasped in horror at the sticky wet finger like protrusion sprouting from inside her.

**Ep 5, Chapter 2**

Neither girl wanted to speak about the bizarre event of that morning, and when Luna came back, Fillia had already broken camp and set up their packs so all Luna need do was change into her normal outfit.

"What do you think we should do today Miss Luna?" Fillia asked with just a touch of increased yet unexplainable respect.

"We should see if this confusion the villagers is limited to some form of trauma, people wanting to make up random stories, or because of some underlying problem." Luna declared.

"How will we do that?" Fillia asked.

"We will ask them a set of five questions completely unrelated to the incident and see how differently they respond." Luna declared as she devised a list. "We will ask them what the date is, what the most important day of the year is, what the name of the village is, who is their ruler, and what is the town famous for."

"That's a brilliant idea!" Fillia lit up with true admiration for the plan and its inventor.

"OK then!" Luna declared boldly, "Let us be off!"

Marching back into the village, they began to ask about a lot of seemingly unrelated questions, and as Luna suspected, their answers were as random and varied as the answers to the events surrounding Lina.

By midday, it was clear that the whole town was under some type of abnormal influence.

"I think they are under the thrall of some evil force." Fillia said nervously, "They're all acting so calm and rational, yet their stories are so totally different, its like each one is living in their own personal individual world, completely unrelated to and unaware of anybody else's world!"

"That is what I am getting as well." Luna rubbed her chin, "Its as if they are under a mind enslavement which makes them seem sane while they are totally mad if you measure them against a set of normal conditions."

"If you were to only ask any one person for the answers," Fillia softly complained, "You might believe that nothing was wrong and believe whatever they said was the truth, but when not a single man, woman or child in the village has the same story, its obvious, they are saying total garbage on the spur of the moment!" folding her arms and looking at the villagers as they calmly went about their activities completely oblivious of the two, she declared, "This place gives me the creeps!"

"I think we should perform a second test." Luna suggested.

"What would that be?" Fillia asked, glancing at the people, dejected and distrustful of the entire village.

"We should both go and ask people the same questions," she raised her finger for emphasis, "_But_..." she paused to let it sink in, "We ask these same people _separately_."

**Ep 5, Chapter 3**

As Queen Martina stood on the balcony of her palace bed chambers gazing out across the city, she looked up on a hill across the valley from the city where a stake had been planted so that the greatest number of people could see it.

In a short while, the embarrassing woman Naga the Serpent would soon be turned into ashes for the entire city to see what happens to those who blasphemed The Monstrous Zomelgustar!

She had worked hard to build this city! Or well, others had worked hard, but she made sure they worked!

"What's on your mind dear wife?" Zangulus asked as he walked up behind her, taking her by the shoulders and kissing her neck.

"I'm just eagerly waiting to see that stupid bitch burn," she replied offhandedly, "I haven't had a lot of excitement lately."

This made Zangulus's eyes widen. "Nothing my love?"

"Well..." she paused, "OK, I'm not talking about that..." and she giggled, turned and kissed him full on the lips.

"I'm glad I'm more than nothing at least." he responded for a moment before resuming their kiss, only to have it interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Oh, gods!" Martina growled, "Who is it?"

"Its your humble servant Theolis," the magistrate replied.

"What do you want?" she impatiently demanded.

"I was simply wishing to prepare a security check of this wing of the palace your highness's," he replied calmly in a shaky old voice, "I just wished to inform you so you would not be alarmed by the temporary noisiness for the next few days as they do their inspections."

"OK," she sighed, "Whatever, just don't come in my room here, got that?"

"Yes your majesty." the quavering old voice replied from behind the door.

"Now..." she said with a seductive and alluring look in her eyes, "Where were we?" as they resumed their embrace.

**Ep 5, Chapter 4**

Fillia began first, taking time to write down the names and answers of each person as well as a description of them so Luna could find them easily, since people were going about their seemingly normal routines and were not merely loitering listlessly.

As she proceeded to the market district, she went from stall to stall asking the merchants since they would be all in a line and easiest to find.

She would go ahead about a hundred paces before Luna, so she would be just far enough away that people would not easily hear them repeating the same questions twice.

Also, this time, because they wanted to know if the people would be primed to answer if they heard anybody else asking the questions, they chose to ask each person only a few questions out of a much longer list, and rotate the questions so that they would not be overheard by the next person along the way.

So it was, that while she was asking one man at a trinket shop her questions, that out of nowhere, who should appear but the monster Xelloss!

"Having fun I see?" he chuckled solicitously from behind her making her scream and jump, her tail actually striking him in the chin and knocking him down in a daze.

"Oww!" he complained rubbing his chin, "That wasn't very polite!" as he leapt up with a look of anger, teleporting behind her again, only with his staff once again across her throat menacingly, "What are you doing here questioning my cattle here, hmmmmm?"

"What are you doing here?!" she demanded in a frightened squeal.

"Why," he chuckled, "I was just asking you the very same thing."

"I'm here trying to find out where Lina Inverse went to!" she said, hoping to gain some useful information from the monster.

"Well well well!" he chuckled, releasing her, "That changes things!"

"Will you help us find her?" she asked hopeful.

"That depends," he replied coyly, Why do you want to find her?" he countered.

"We are on a quest to save the world from this awful terrible horrible cursed plague which is destroying every living thing in its path!"

"My my my!" he declared, rubbing his chin, "And where did you hear about this most amusing plague?" he asked bemused with a weaselly sounding chuckle.

"From me you sack of orc turds!" while pile driving him into the pavement with her fist with a resounding smash and a thundering voice which shakes the village and sends people running and screaming.

"Heyyyy!" Xelloss complained while pulling himself up out of the hole in the ground she just made with him, "That wasn't very nice!"

"So tell me where I can find my sister Lina Inverse!" Luna growled at him, "Or I'm going to get even less nice!"

"Hey hey hey now!" he continued his weaselly chuckling game, "That's a secret!"

"Not again!" Fillia wailed in derision, "You keep saying that same stupid saying all the time while you are planning your evil schemes and I am sick of it!" she screamed, tail sticking out straight as an arrow, "You've killed thousand or maybe even millions of innocent lives saying that very same thing!"

"So then the time for secrets is over you sack of orc turds!" she yanked him up by the collar, "Out with it."

Teleporting out of her grasp, he waggled a finger, "Nu-uh-uh.." and with one eye open in his menacing look, "I don't think so..."

With a blinding speed as fast as teleportation, Luna leapt at Xelloss while unclipping her holy blade Einlanzer and with a decisive strike, plunged it into his shoulder where it began to emit a powerful golden light and hiss like a sizzling piece of meat.

"Shall I sing you a happy song Namagomi?" Fillia offered sweetly, knowing that the positive energy of such songs weakened the monsters such as himself.

Ahhhhhhh!" he wailed in agony as she proceeded to sing 'Life is Wonderful' which she had learned from Amelia, "Okay! Okay! I'll tell you where she is! Please stop!"

"Never trust a monster!" Fillia retorted and continued.

"Yeah," Luna resonated, "Never ever trust a monster!" as she twisted the searing blade, "You're going to take us directly to her...now!"

"Okay! Okay!" he conceded, "Please stop, you're hurting me!"

"You don't say..." she replied sarcastically in a nasty tone, "Then you best make it snappy!"

In extreme pain and anguish, he chanted a stronger teleportation spell and the three of them vanished from the village.


	6. Episode 6

**Episode 6**

"**Dear Sister! Have I Got A Plague For You!"**

The trio of Luna, Fillia and Xelloss suddenly appeared in a field not far from a small village out in the middle of a vast plain.

Off in the distance, a rumble and a mushroom cloud goes up. Amazingly, its NOT in the village, but rather, its out in the plains.

"And that, ladies, would be your precious Lina."

"What would she be doing out there?" Fillia asked distrustful of Xelloss.

"Beats me," he lied, "I just follow the jewels she wears!" groaning in agony. "Now can you please get this thing out of my shoulder?"

"No chance you sack of orc turds, you're a monster." Luna growled in reply, "This is how I make sure I have control of you."

"Well since she's afraid of Luna," Fillia opined, "I believe it would be best if you two stay back while I go see her and ask her to come back with us."

"I can see why she's afraid of you!" Xelloss complained grimacing at Luna who still had firm grip on him with sword painfully in place.

"With good cause!" Luna half growled, half hissed at the monster.

"I'll be back soon!" Fillia declared then teleported to the base of the mushroom cloud.

**Ep 6, Chapter 2**

"Alright you lazy slobs," the squeaking scratchy teenage voice of Lina Inverse shouted, "Get in there and move that pay dirt!" while the red haired flat chested girl pointed commandingly toward the magically crafted device which separated even the finest gold dust out of the mix of stone, soil and precious metal.

"Hello Lina!" Fillia joyfully sang out as she materialized behind Lina on her little observation platform.

"Whaaaaa?!" Lina exclaimed startled in alarm, spinning around, "Fillia!? What are you doing here?"

"I came as fast as I could to find you!" Fillia replied, her voice turning urgent, "We have a terrible cursed plague back in your home country of Zephilia and we need your help urgently!"

"Can't you see I'm busy here?" Lina's face instantly turned sour, "Why doesn't my sister take care of it?"

"Your sister can't perform magic!" Fillia replied in a pleading but urgent tone, "We really need your help!"

"I can't just go and give up my gold mine!" she shouted, "No way!" she screamed, "Go find some other sorceress to fix your problem!"

"There aren't any around!"

"I can think of ONE who would do it if the REWARD is big enough..."

"Who would that be?" Fillia asked genuinely surprised.

"Naga...the...Serpent!" she declared, drawing it out for emphasis.

"Why," Fillia looked confused, "I've never heard of such a person!"

"What?!" Lina's eyes bulged, "You haven't?! What's the matter with you? Why that loud mouthed hussy has a laugh that will scare a plague totally away!"

"I'm afraid I have never heard of anybody like that since I moved to Tenor Miss Lina." Fillia honestly responded."

"Well THAT'S strange..." Lina frowned, "I can't imagine my 'rival' not trying to get as much fame for herself as possible..." rubbing her chin. "Oh well," she shrugged, "Doesn't matter, not my problem." she frowned, "That hussy still owes me a lot of money anyhow!"

Fillia sighed in resignation and teleported back to Luna and Xelloss.

**Ep 6, Chapter 3**

Fillia rematerialized next to Luna who was still holding Xelloss with a glum look on her face.

"She didn't want to leave her precious gold mine." she reported with a heavy sigh.

"She what!?" Luna growled, "That insolent little SNOT!" Luna yanked Xelloss fiercely and loudly growled "COME ON!" forcing the monster to teleport the two of them to where Fillia had just come from.

Lina's eyes bugged as her sister's body materialized right before her, Xelloss in hand. In a flash, she leapt from the observation tower and fled off across the plains leaving a dust trail that looked like the rocket exhaust plume from Jillas final missile half a year earlier.

"Linaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" she roared as she threw Xelloss down on the ground with a thud, raising her sword overhead, "What's the matter with youuuuuuuuu!?" and she charged.

Xelloss groaned and rubbed his throbbing shoulder, but it was clear to him that this conflict between the Inverse sisters would at least generate enough negative energy to recharge him and heal his wounds.

As the two sped pell-mell across the plains, grass, leaves, flowers, birds and small animals were sent flying.

"Linaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaa!" she bellowed again, "Get back hereeeeeeeee!"

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Lina screamed in terror as she tried vainly to outpace her older sister.

After an hour of speeding all around the plains, finally Luna closed the gap and bashed Lina with the flat of her sword, sending her into a face-first baseball slide that lasted a hundred paces and ended when she struck a small tree, the only tree for leagues in any distance in fact, knocking fruits and leaves out of it onto herself.

At this point, Xelloss said, "I think this is a good time for me to leave..." and he vanished.

As Luna yanked Lina up into the air, she demanded, "Where do you think YOU'RE going?!"

Eyes spinning, but terrified, Lina trued to chuckle..."He-he, who, me? Nowhere!"

We have a cursed plague of some magical supernatural form killing everything in sight and your greedy ass is here digging up gold while the whole world is in danger!" Ad worse than THAT, our father is DYING because of it and I can't go home until YOU come up with a CURE!"

"How-how-how am I supposed to find a cure for it?"

"I don't know, but YOU'RE the expert on MAGIC in this family, so you best get WORKING on one!"

"How can I do that if you KILL me?" Lina screamed fearfully, remembering Luna's promise that if she ever got hold of her she would kill her.

Catching hold of her self, Luna's countenance changed suddenly, "If you find the cure for this and save our father," she offered, on my word as the Knight of Ceiphied, I shall fully pardon you for that nasty little stunt and you will be safe from my formerly intended vengeance."

Nervously sweating, Lina thought it through in her head, "If I refuse, she will kill me and if I fail, she will kill me, or this cursed plague will kill me, but if I succeed, everybody is saved and I get her off my back? I think I have to give it a try." then she said nervously to Luna, "I can't promise you I can cure this plague, but considering the alternative, I really don't have a choice, huh?"

"That's right," Luna replied sternly, "You don't."

Chuckling nervously, she responded, "Well, heheh, lets get going then..."

Just then Gourry came running up, "Lina, what's going on here? "

"Uhhh-huh," Lina replied, "Well Gourry," she said, "It looks like you are going to have to look over things while I go take care of some urgent business."

"But Lina," he protested, "I don't know how this thing works!"

"Fine then!" she shouted angrily, "Do whatever you want!"

"But shouldn't I go with you?" he protested, "After all, it is my duty to protect you."

"Haven't you got anything better to do?" Lina complained.

"Well, not really." he shrugged.

"Oh..." she sighed in exasperation, "Come on then."

**Ep 6, Chapter 4**

"It looks like our easy way back got away from us," Luna grumbled, "We could have simply used him as the means to teleport back home."

"Well he got us to Lina at least," Fillia said, then said "That namagomi, we should get rid of him once and for all." with resentment in her voice.

"Wow, Fillia!" Lina exclaimed, "Since when did you get so down on people?"

"I've had a lot of time to think things over since my people all died." she said sullenly. "I'm not as naïve as I used to be."

Well we're not so naïve our selves, Lina replied confidently, "Gourry and I have really had some growing up to do, huh Gourry?"

"Uhhh..." guess so," he replied uncertainly...

"Mannnnnn!" she groaned, "You idiot" and she bonked him over the head with her fist.

"Owww! Heyyy!" he complained.

You should grow some brains while you're at it!" she admonished him.

Luna noticed that not only was Fillia slumping in emotional misery, but her beautiful tail was dragging behind her in the grass, and there over the middle of her big pink ribbon glistened the golden rose! This made Luna's heart soar in a way she never imagined.

"Its going to be okay," Luna said, wrapping her arm around Fillia's shoulder, "We have each other here and we're going to make it through this."

Fillia felt the need for comfort and assurance and leaned her head over on Luna's chest as they walked, "I sure hope so..." she sighed.

Of course, with Fillia leaning over on her bosom, she felt her heart beat more strongly, and that strange pressure between her legs, but she didn't want to let go of Fillia, and she simply kept walking as if nothing was different, even though an almost imperceptible bump had appeared on the front of her skirt, "_Think pure thoughts! Think pure thoughts! Think pure thoughts! Think pure thoughts!_" she repeated in her head as they walked.


	7. Episode 7

**Episode 7**

"**A Night at the Inn? Luna Get a Hold of Your Self!"**

As the party came to the village near Lina's mine, Lina led them to the inn since she was their favorite customer.

"We'll stay here tonight and rest up," Lina said as they entered the small cottage sized establishment, "Then we'll leave out in the morning."

The wait staff was already passing out food since they had grown accustomed to her eating habits and had grown quite wealthy as well.

"How far are we from Tenor?" Fillia asked as she rather daintily ate.

"Oh," Lina replied, "It took us four months to get here walking, so I would say its about a thousand leagues." as she scarfed down potatoes and ripped chunks of meat from the bone.

"Wow!" Fillia gasped, "And that namagomi teleported us most of the way with a sword in his shoulder!"

"Well he is a Mazoku after all," Lina replied.

"Yeah," Fillia sighed, "well I'm not that strong, so I can't teleport us all that distance at once."

"We shall just have to move as best we can naturally." Luna concluded, while barely nibbling on an ear of corn.

"Well I think I shall retire for the night," Fillia sighed, "How do I find my room?"

"Oh," Gourry replied, "About that," he pointed with a mutton bone, "There are only one room left open, so you two will have to share."

**Ep 7, Chapter 2**

The hall was narrow and dimly lit and the rooms were small with only one bed apiece.

A small stool and table with a water pitcher and wash basin took up much of the room and one had to place their personal effects on the floor because there were no shelves or drawers.

The bed was spacious enough, but it nearly filled the entire room.

"Well," Fillia said, "Not much chance of one of us sleeping on the floor," then turning to Lina, "Do you want the window side or the room side?"

"Ummmm," Luna was trying very hard to not be nervous, "I think maybe I'll just sit in the chair."

"Nonsense!" Fillia rebutted, "You need your sleep as much as any of us does!"

"Well," she fumbled, "Ummm...well...how about you choose?" Luna finally offered.

"Ok," Fillia replied, "I like to look out at the stars at night since I have been away from the temple, so I shall sleep by the window." and with that, she gracefully slid onto the bed and pulled the covers up, laying on her back looking toward Luna who was pondering her night clothes.

"Ok," Luna sighed, "I'll go change in the water closet and be back."

"Why do you have to go all the way there?" Fillia asked.

"Well I can't just change in front of you," Luna replied as if it were such an obvious fact.

"But we're both girls," Fillia replied, "I changed in front of you."

"You did?" Luna replied.

"Sure!" Fillia frowned in a bemused way, "When I change from my true form to my avatar!"

"But that-" Luna protested.

"I'm fully naked during my transformation." she firmly declared, "And you were right there watching the whole time."

"Ummmmm..." Luna now blushed redly. She had never even thought of it that way! "Well... I suppose you are right..." she conceded, "But I'm going to face the corner while I change anyhow."

"Do as you like," Fillia replied and giggled, looking up at the ceiling.

As Luna pulled her pajamas out of her night pack, she realized they had a dark damp spot on them. "Oh no!" she gasped inwardly, "I forgot all about this!" rummaging around she finally found another item of clothing, a pair of short shorts from her school years which she didn't even remember putting in the pack... "Where did those come from?" then she found a note, "These have been in here for seven years?" she held them up and they seemed like they would still fit, so she set them aside and the swim top that went with them.

As she changed, Fillia kept staring at the ceiling, but little by little, she kept inadvertently, quickly glancing toward Luna, a little bit longer each time, but trying to focus on one single spot on the ceiling and not watch the obviously modest Knight of Ceiphied as she undressed and put on her night clothes.

Finally, Luna completed the arduously long production of changing into her night clothes, and then she crossed over to put out the lamp and slide into the bed...

Some time during the night, while the two slept, Fillia in her sleep rolled over partly on top of Luna, draping her left arm across her midsection and they slept that way all night since Luna was such a deep sleeper she was not awakened by anything but sunlight.

As the sun in fact did seep in the window however, it was Luna who woke up first, and to her surprise and dismay, Fillia's arm was not merely draped across her, but her hand was centered directly on her crotch, which had developed the new and alarming protrusion, which was unmistakably larger today than is was just yesterday!

"Ohhhhhhhh!" she groaned to herself in terror, "What am I going to do now...?"

Gingerly lifting the sleeping girl's hand seemed like the best thing to do, but as luck would have it, before she could manage to act on the plan, Lina banged open the door to notify her notoriously deep sleeping sister that it was time to get a move on!

"Rise and shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiii..." Lina's eyes bugged out, mouth agape, while Fillia lurched, pushing herself upward, applying full direct force on Luna, who had the worst possible look of horror and mortification a girl could possibly have! "...nnnnnnnne.."

All three girls screamed at once and soon there was a bustle of people crowding into the hallway trying to see what the early morning commotion was all about, and the only thing Fillia could think to do was teleportation.

She vanished and took Luna with her, tightly grasped in the dragon girl's hand!

As they materialized some few miles out of the village in the cool morning sun, Fillia looked down to see what she had in her hand, then gasping pulled her hand back alarmed. "I'm so so so so so so so sorry!" she blabbered hysterically, "I-I-I-I-I-I" she went silent only because Luna fainted.

**Ep 7, Chapter 3**

Fillia could not think of what else to do, so she teleported back to the room, grabbed Luna's bag and amid the various voices in the hallway quickly shouted to Lina who was at the door trying to quiet the people, "We'll be back in just a few minutes!"

Lina shouted back over her shoulder, "Make it quick, we need to get going soon!"

With that, Fillia vanished again.

Luna moaned, holding her head, "What just happened?" then looked at herself and saw that she was back in her daytime clothing.

"Whaaaaaaa?!" she looked in shock at the red faced Fillia who had dressed her.

"I didn't remove your night clothes," she protested, "I used magic to clothe you by teleporting you into your travel clothing.

Luna lowered her eyes and thought on it... "Thank you," she murmured.

"I'm really terribly sorry about.-"

"Lets not talk about that, ok?" Luna groaned at the memory.

"Ok," Fillia conceded. "We really should be getting back to the others now."

"Yes," Luna sighed, "You're right." and as she got up, she said, "Lets not talk about this with the others, ok?"

Fillia blushed deeply, "I had no desire to..."

With that, they returned to the inn.

**Ep 7, chapter 4**

As the four of them materialized in the city of Tenor, in front of Fillia's shoppe, Jillas and Gravos came out to greet them cheerfully.

"Its been lonely without you Miss Fillia," Jillas complained, "Its just terrible boring."

"I'm sure that for you two," Fillia said reprovingly, "boring is a very good sign."

"Awwwweee Missssssss," he protested pleadingly, "Are we really that bad?"

"Bad enough that when you're complaining, I have realized that it is a good sign." then she declared to the both of them, "I will be gone a bit longer still, so you two will just have to continue to be bored until get this matter settled and return."

"Yes Miss Fillia," Gravos conceded submissively.

"Well then," Fillia announced, "Now that I've checked up on everything here, I say its time to move onward toward our next destination."

With that, they walked the short distance to the docks where ships were loading and passengers were boarding for the voyage to other shores.

"You can't get us across the sea can you Fillia?" Lina asked.

"I can not, I am afraid," she admitted, "Certainly not in one jump. But if we get within three day's sailing, I can take us the rest of the way."

"That is a lot faster than any other options we have," Luna admitted.

"Wait!" Gourry protested. "Are you planning on flying or teleporting us the last distance?"

"Why do you ask?" Fillia queried.

"Because he's afraid of flying!" Lina declared laughing.

"Hey!" he protested sounding hurt.

"Well I can most likely make it there in one jump if I teleport, provided we're not too far out," Fillia warned, "But if I'm off, we'll all land in the sea and I will have to rest up before I can move all of us again."

"Don't worry about that," Lina replied, "I'll just cast restoration on you until you're up for another jump."

"Ok," Fillia conceded, "That makes sense to me."

"I'm ok with it as well." Luna agreed.

"Whatever you guys decide, I'm here for the ride." Gourry surrendered.


	8. Episode 8

**Episode 8**

"**Returning Home! Some Highly Unwelcome Surprises!"**

As the vessel sailed across the sea, each day the captain estimated how close they were to their destination on the sea chart and Fillia would patiently observe waiting for the time when they would be close enough to make it in no more than two jumps.

Lina concentrated on conjuring a wind spell to speed them along and on the third day a storm picked up which advanced them ahead even more.

But the morning of the fourth day Fillia decided she was close enough and they teleported to land, making it to the beach.

"Well," Lina happily declared, "Looks like we made it!"

"Wow that's really good!" Gourry declared amazed.

"I wasn't too sure to be honest," Fillia humbly replied.

"Well you did a fine job I say," Luna praised.

"Well then lets get going!" Lina announced, taking the lead as she was prone to.

"Hey!" Gourry asked, "Where are we going?"

"Oh." Lina chuckled, "Yeah...about that...where are we going anyway?"

"We're going to have to figure out what caused this plague before we can figure out how to cure it," Luna replied, "So you two need to figure out what is written on the crypt this thing came from and hopefully we'll have a clue what we're up against."

"A crypt did you say?" Lina asked wide eyed.

"Something like a crypt," Luna shrugged, "Or a burial vault...what does it matter?"

"It matters a LOT!" Lina replied, "It could be a curse of a necromancer!"

"A necromancer?!" Gourry cried, "I-I-I'm not so sure this is such a good idea guys! Those things are really bad!"

"Well I'm immortal, so it has no effect on me." Luna boasted proudly.

"That's all good and well for you, but for the rest of us that's no help at all!" Lina shouted.

"Lina, please!" Fillia pleaded her. "We must stop this or it will destroy every living thing in the whole world!"

"So we have to do this now or it will be too late!" Luna growled. "And since you haven't found the cure YET, Lina Inverse," she warned darkly, "You're not out of the woods with me YET."

Breaking into nervous laughter, Lina replied, "Heh-heh...Oh yeah...Well then we better hurry!"

With that, Lina cast restoration on Fillia so she could teleport to the Inverse's home.

**Ep 8, Chapter 2**

The party arrived at the Inverse's home in a flash.

Upon arrival, Lana rushed outside with her arms outstretched toward Lina whom she had not seen in four years, "Lina! Come here my baby!"

Lina, however, was not quite so delighted to see her mother because of their past. To her mother's chagrin, she began to walk right past her mother as if she wasn't even there.

That was, until Luna said, "Oh isn't it so wonderful to have a family who loves you!" which made Lina's eyes bulge, and take a different tact...

"Momma!" she suddenly exclaimed, "Its been SO LONG!" throwing herself on the suddenly unimpressed Lana knocking her mother to the ground.

"I get it Lina," her mother grumbled, "Now get off of me."

Lina gathered herself off Lana and rose to go inside, but Grandma Laura was by the door blocking her way with a very solemn face. "Be warned child..." she said in a grave tone, "Your father is not well."

Steeling herself for what she was going to see, she was led up the long, winding stairs to the top tower room, where she was only allowed to peer into the room through a glass pane to keep her from breathing the air from the room.

There in a bed with only the light from the window so that no magic or energy would advance the plague her father lay, not moving, for all appearances dead already.

Seeing the ashen colored body, not breathing, no color in the face, gaunt, frail, it was hard to believe it was her proud, powerful wealthy father, one of the greatest merchants to ever ply the trade.

"Father..." was all she could choke out as tears filled her eyes.

Turning to her grandmother, she leaned into her chest and sobbed miserably as for the very first time in her life, the prospect of losing a family member, especially the one most near and dear to her came upon her. "_No! This can't be happening_!" she cried within herself, "_I won't let it_!"

Lina felt so helpless right now, knowing that her magic could not kill this plague and in fact would instead only kill the ones she loved and herself as well. That just infuriated her to a level she had never experienced before in her life.

People had insulted her, robbed her, even threw her in jail for things she had never done 'just because she was Lina Inverse! But NEVER...NEVER EVER had any ONE or any THING made her feel so utterly and pathetically helpless, and that was simply unforgivable.

As Fillia and the others came up to the top of the tower stairs, Lina turned to them, tears in her eyes, "I shall DESTROY this cursed plague!" both fists balled up tightly, then she resumed sobbing, only this time into Fillia's chest.

**Ep 8, chapter 3**

As the group departed the Inverse mansion, there was a lot more depth of feelings in Lina's embrace. It was as if she had suddenly grown up. She came a child and left an adult.

Seeing somebody threaten her most beloved possession and make her feel more helpless than she ever imagined possible crystallized something in her soul that would never be undone.

She was on a mission like never before. She had officially declared war on this mysterious cursed plague if it took sacrificing her life! Nothing and nobody would stand in her way!

Well, it looks as if my little sister is finally growing up.

As they walked down the road, Gourry asked, "Hey Lina, uhhh..." scratching his head, "Did you get all the gold we collected while we were mining? Because I couldn't seem to find my share anywhere."

"Oh...about that," Lina snapped out of her reverie briefly, "I forgot to tally up the balance."

"You did?" he came back worried.

"Well since we've got a little time here before we get anywhere we need it, I can count out your share as we go."

"That's good," he replied with calm gratitude, "I sure need a new pair of socks!"

"I'D SAY!" Lina replied, and with that she pulled a large bag of gold coins from her magic cape and began counting them as they went.

As they proceeded, however, an evil pair of eyes leered upon them from the bushes.

"Two thousand six hundred seventy one, two thousand six hundred seventy two..." Line was counting, "Two hun-" she was interrupted by an Explosion Array cast by an unknown assailant, "Ahhhhhhhhh!" she wailed in pain and anger as her coins flew in all directions by the blast.

"There they are!" Luna exclaimed launching at the dark cloaked figure only to strike an empty ghostlike silhouette.

"No there they are!" Gourry shouted, launching with the Blast Blade at another figure to only find they too were nothing but dark mist.

As Lina rose from the ground already at the breaking point, she spun in all directions seeing at least twenty of these ghostly figures and without an adequate spell she called out to Fillia, "Hey Fillia! This is a Shadow Shaman! They are using shadow magic to protect themselves from physical attacks!"

"I have just the thing for that!" with that she lifted her voice and shouted, "ateku...ra-zu-omu... ranaku-tsuraku... izu peku naomu... kaotikku disutingureito!" and a blinding blue-white light enveloped the entire area for fifty paces, totally dissolving the shadow copies and eliciting a bellow of agony from behind a nearby outcropping of rocks.

"Lina!" Gourry pointed, "Over there!"

Foregoing her usual pomp and chatter with an enemy, she simply recited, "Lord of darkness of the four worlds, grant me all the power that you posses. Lord of the dreams that terrify. Sword of cold and darkness, free yourself from the heaven's bonds. Become one with my power, one with my body, and let us walk the path of destruction together. Power that can smash even the souls of the gods: Ragna Blade!"

As the blade leapt forth, it slipped through the stones as I they were stacks of warm butter and the top portions all slid off.

As the monster behind the stone and the shadow shaman lay there, one fading into mist while one lay bleeding out, the monster declared, "You shall not save your worthless world Lina Inverse, Xelloss will see to that!" and faded completely away.

"Theolis..." the shadow shaman gasped while dying, Theolis Rhystan will see to your deaths personally..." and with a painful gasp and cough, the man expired...

"Xelloss?" Fillia gasped, "That worthless namagomi!" she growled as much as her soft voice would achieve, "I'm so sick of him!"

"Why am I not surprised he is involved with this?" Lina rolled her eyes, "Seems everything we do somehow has something to do with him trying to destroy this world!"

"Well I for one would be delighted to cut his 'ah-hem' off, that sack of orc turds!" Luna growled in a much more menacing tone.

"Cut his WHAT off?" Gourry looked up alarmed.

"Never mind that now!" Lina shouted, "All our gold is scattered everywhere!"

Rrrr-righ!" Gourry responded, "I'll help you!"

Everybody began searching around on their hands and knees picking up the tens of thousands of small gold coins, all along the roadway, in the bushes and even out in the vineyards.

As they were busily collecting them, Fillia was in sort of a gold induced state of mind brought on by her natural affinity for the precious yellow metal. As she crawled along toward the side of the road and saw a coin resting up on top of the stone fence which bounded the field and peered over it to see a relatively large bar of gold laying just over the other side!

Excited by this, she got up on her knees and reached over to lift the heavy bar, which in turn tipped her forward, and reflexively her tail popped straight up trying to counterbalance her and the huge gold bar.

Luna who was not far behind her saw this sudden commotion and there before her she saw two beautiful legs, frilly pink bloomers and a majestic golden tail quivering under the effort of lifting the unseen object behind the stone fence.

At once she had a sudden nosebleed, feeling quite dizzy, and at the same time, her new found parts [which had CONTINUED growing] were now pressing up against her belly button, threatening to lift the hem of her own skirt sky high as well, only in FRONT!

"_Oh dear Ceiphied_!" she wailed to herself in despair, "_What am I EVER going to do now?_!"

"Luna," Fillia requested in a strained voice.

"Y-y-y-y-yess?" Luna stammered from only a few feet behind the dragoness.

"Could you please help me get this big bar up?"

"Bu-bu-bu-bu-bar?" she stuttered, looking up and down the soft fleshy golden shaft of dragoness, "Oh, um..." then she thought how the stone wall would be a great place to hide her own unexpected lifting bar, "Sure!" and with that she leapt forward to offer just enough meager help to keep the entranced dragoness busy while she did her best to clear her mind.

"_These rocks are terribly painful!_" she realized to herself, as her weight pressed her tender tipped body into the rough and unyielding stone, "_I'm not sure which is worse! The embarrassment or the pain of this predicament_!"

To make things worse, her nose dripped blood right onto the heavy gold bar, making it slippery and harder to hold onto.

"Luna?" Fillia asked.

"Wha-wha-what?" she responded trying to keep her mind on the task, which in reality she could have handled with her supernatural strength.

"Why is your nose bleeding?"

**Ep 8. Chapter 4**

**inset**

With the gold collecting task completed and Gourry's share of the prospecting venture taken care of, the group was under way.

That is, except Luna who said she had to take care of something personal and that everybody else should just go on ahead, she would catch up.

While she struggled to regain control of her unruly new part, she tried to find a way to make it stop throbbing and aching like it was going to tear apart inside.

What she didn't know is that while Lina and Gourry proceeded toward the inn and a sumptuous meal, Fillia was worried at Luna's strange behavior and held back, finally turning around and retracing their steps to where they were when she sent them ahead.

She heard Luna's voice from the thick brush, at first thinking she was simply relieving herself but with perhaps a little difficulty.

As Luna's grunts and groans seemed to vary from anger to frustration, then to something more like fear or pain, then she groaned (or was it a sigh?) as if she had just achieved a very difficult task one would be most embarrassed to speak about.

The strange item was that there was no corresponding odor she would have expected. There certainly was an odor, however, her keen dragon senses picked up something more musky and tangy, very unlike anything she could recall ever smelling in her short 1573 years of life in the temple.

"Luna?" she queried nervously anxious.

"Waaaaaaa!" Luna jumped and fell backward out of the bushes on her back, the hem of her skirt flipped up onto her chest, body part sticking straight up, shiny wet with milky gray translucent goop slowly oozing out of the tip.

"Luna!" Fillia rushed over alarmed that some terrible disease had stricken Luna, "Do you need help?"

"I need something to wipe myself with..." Luna croaked in teary eyed embarrassment.

"Hold on," Fillia responded, still not comprehending what she was seeing, "I'll get something from Lina and be back in a flash!" she vanished before Luna could protest.

"Ohhhh...nooooo..." Luna groaned.

**Ep 8, Chapter 4**

With the gold collecting task completed and Gourry's share of the prospecting venture taken care of, the group was under way.

That is, except Luna who said she had to take care of something personal and that everybody else should just go on ahead, she would catch up.

Fillia fell behind with a worried look but the other two failed to notice as Lina was bragging about how much gold they would be making once they returned to the claim she had staked, and Gourry seemed to just be looking around at the scenery, although despite his seemingly mindless inattentiveness, he was actually scanning the area for more ambushers or wild beasts.

So when Fillia returned by teleportation, Lina jumped up startled. "Don't do that to me!" she shouted.

"I'm terribly sorry Miss Lina," she humbly apologized, "But I think Miss Luna has something wrong with her and she asked for something to wipe herself with"

Not knowing what Fillia really meant, Lina assumed it was the normal womanly problem and quickly rummaged in her travel bag for a spare lady's cloth. "She should know to pack more of these with her in the future," Lina grumbled, "I only have so many and I'm not her personal valet!"

"Yes Miss Lina," she humbly apologized then teleported back to Luna's previous location.

Luna was huddled behind the bushes still, having regained her footing, if not her composition.

"I got a cloth to wipe yourself with Miss Luna," Fillia nervously offered, leaning over toward the bushes worried, wanting to see what was going on, yet too timid and too much of a lady to peer in on somebody in their state of privacy.

"Just roll it up and toss it in to me!" Luna shouted, "I'll be okay now," she tried to sound calmer and more composed, "You just go on ahead like I asked you to before and I'll be right along shortly."

"Yes Miss Luna," Fillia responded timidly while doing as she was instructed, "here is the cloth." and she tossed it, but it snagged on a high branch of the bushes Luna could not reach while squatting. "Oh-!" Fillia blurted in embarrassed exasperation because her nervousness caused her to toss the cloth too high, and without thinking she teleported to the cloth to dislodge it, just as Luna decided to make a quick standing grab for the cloth.

The results were rather complicated!

Luna, still dealing with the new hardship stood up just the moment Fillia teleported directly beside her, landing exactly astraddle Luna! After what seemed like an eternity within only a couple of seconds, they both realized that only two thin layers of cloth separated their nether regions and the pressure could be felt by both!

Both girls screamed in shock, and Fillia teleported away again and Luna curled up into a very humiliated fetal position shaking violently.

"I'm terribly sorry Miss Luna!" she once again profusely apologized, "I promise it will never happen again!"

"Just please don't tell anybody else what just happened!" Luna wailed miserably.

"Oh no Miss Luna!" she promised, "I swear to Ceiphied I shall never tell a soul!"

"Then can we perhaps get to the inn ahead of the others so I can wash up?"

"Yes Miss Luna!" she heartily agreed with this idea and soon they were in the womens' wash room of Alyth's All Welcoming Inn.

"If you wouldn't mind please," Luna asked blushing profusely, "I'd prefer to bathe in privacy."

"Sorry!" Fillia too blushed, "Yes Miss Luna!" and she teleported to the dining hall to announce their arrival formally to the proprietors.

"Oh Fillia!" Alyth exclaimed, "Welcome!" as she rushed up, wrapping the dragoness in a busty but warm embrace, "Are you here alone?" she asked.

"No ma'am," she replied, "Luna is here too, and Lina and Gourry will be along soon."

"Lina?" she exclaimed in greater excitement, "Why I haven't seen her in years!" then thinking, "This Gourry then," she queried, "is a sorcerer as well?"

"No Miss Alyth," Fillia replied, "He is a swordsman who protects Lina while she travels."

"Well I welcome you all to my inn and please feel at home here!" then looking around, "So..." halting between words in confusion, "Just where is Luna?"

"Oh," Fillia began to blurt out, then stopped in a blush, then thinking quickly, "She's just cleaning up from the trip," smiling graciously, "She will be here soon!"

Fortunately, that was just the time Lina and Gourry walked in the front door making the bell jingle.

"Linaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Alyth exclaimed again, rushing over to embrace the younger Inverse in her ample bosom, "And you must be Gourry!" she greeted the muscular blond young man.

"Aunt Alyth!" Lina's muffled shouting came forth, "You're smothering me!"

"So terribly sorry!" she released the younger girl while laughing heartily, Bruno's warm resounding laugh accompanied it from the kitchen, "What will it be today then?" she clasped her hands before her apron.

"We'll have ten of everything on the menu!" Lina exclaimed.


	9. Episode 9

**Episode 9**

"**Prophetic Message? What Inverse Is It Talking About Anyway!?"**

That afternoon, with Luna cleaned up and dressed in her armor, the group set off toward the ominous crypt where the whole plague originated.

"Why are you wearing your holy armor Luna?" Lina asked.

"I would just rather be prepared." was all her older sister said, and the sweetness of her tone seemed to Lina a bit disingenuous.

"Humph." Lina replied, "I looks like you're expecting some kind of disaster!" she grumbled, "And none of the rest of us has anything like you have!"

"_Lucky me you think that way_!" Luna thought to herself, but aloud she replied, "Oh, I think you'll be okay." in a knowing, and slightly condescending tone.

"Well, what am I supposed to be doing here?" Gourry asked, "I don't have any armor or any magic!"

"Don't worry." Luna replied, "I'll be doing most of the dirty work today."

They reached the point where the entire landscape was dead and shriveled, with barren patches spreading, and even the dirt was seemingly an unnaturally pale color.

As they walked, Luna noted a few places she had before seen corpses, where only small pieces of cloth and leather, or a metallic item such as a knife remained.

"Wow!" Lina marveled, "They're totally disintegrating!"

"Is it safe for us to be here?" Luna asked.

"That," Luna sighed, "I really don't know the answer to."

They walked along in silence until they came to the hill overlooking the excavation site.

There in the large pit they could see the top of the stone structure, just as it was last time she was there.

"I have to go the rest of the way alone." Luna announced, "I'm the only one this plague will not directly attack. And if you see any violet glowing light around you, even the slightest shimmer, teleport back to town right away."

"Yes Miss Luna," Fillia obediently replied.

With that she walked away, down the hill to the side where the ramp led directly into the pit, where her magical armor began to glow and seemed to have crackling sparks flying off of it the deeper into the pit she walked. From there however, she went out of sight behind the crypt where they could not see her.

At the entry to the crypt, Luna felt the terrible presence of the plague still trying to invade and destroy her as it had tried before, but she simply went to the unopened doorway and carefully removed the talismans, doing her best to not damage them any more than they were.

Some of the talismans which had been torn were showing signs of attack from the curse plague, they were almost nothing but transparent images now, and when she touched one of them, it faded into fine dust that vanished into thin air.

Taking the four best, most intact talismans, she returned to the group, grateful to be away from that terrible presence which was filling her lungs trying to get into her body and consume her like it had those mortals who foolishly opened the crypt to begin with.

As she reached the top, the other three were looking anxiously as she detached her sword Einlanzer and waved it across the talismans. No violet glow or sparks erupted in their presence, despite being there in that pit all this time.

"Well," she conjectured, "These talismans seem to repel the curse plague," and she reattached her sword to her necklace where it instantly shrank back to a charm until she next might need it. "I don't know how it works, or what is written on them, but its somehow warding off the plague and there were about fifty of them on the crypt door," handing one of them to each of the others but keeping one for her self, just in case, "Only these last four came off intact."

"Well," Lina looked at them, "This is clearly Mazokese," turning the talisman over in her hands.

"Uhhh..." Gourry looked at it, "What's that?"

Getting annoyed, "Once again Gourry," she growled, "You're the only one here who doesn't have a _clue_ what is going on..."

"Mazokese is the language of the monster race." Fillia responded helpfully, "The Mazoku."

"Like that sack of orc turds Xelloss!" Luna growled.

"Hey," Lina began in an apologetic manner, "He's only a monster you know. What else would you expect from him?"

"Just you wait and see if you continue to defend him when the truth comes out!" Luna challenged her.

"Uhh-huh-huh," Lina chuckled at her sister nervously, "I think I'll shut up now..."

"I'm hungry again!" Gourry declared.

"Gourry!" Lina complained weakly.

"Well its not like the inn has any other customers," Luna offered, "And the food will go bad if nobody eats it," she continued, "And they're such good friends to us," she rationalized, "So why not support them in this time of hardship?"

"Well," Lina considered, "When you put it that way..." and shrugged.

"Lets not bring back any of the local dust since it might be contaminated." Fillia suggested, "I would hate to bring the plague right to the home of such sweet wonderful people..."

"Good idea!" Luna heartily praised her sound thinking.

With that, Fillia summoned the spell and the four of them departed in a golden flash.

**Ep 9, Chapter 2**

Arriving in the dining room of the inn, Lina and Gourry did their best to help reduce the old stocks of Alyth's All Welcoming Inn, but Fillia was not too hungry and after a cup of herbal tea, excused herself to one of the many vacant rooms to relax and get in some long overdue meditation.

As she went into her trance-like state, she once again began seeing images of baby golden dragons, running and playing in the breeze beside a beautifully decorated cottage overlooking the sea.

As she focused on the image, it seemed to grow from mere ghostly paleness behind her eyelids into a very vivid lifelike one, until finally, she seemed to actually be standing there! The breeze threw a couple of strands of her long blond hair across her face, startling her, but instead of falling out of her trance, the shock seemed to even more strongly reinforce it!

A beautiful little girl dragon ran up and tugged on the hem of her gown, "Momma! Momma! I can fly now!"

And as she spun to watch the child dash toward the cliff, something inside her instinctively wanted to run and rescue her, but instead, she watched as the child morphed into a small dragon and sailed off the cliff and then high up into the sky.

"They're beautiful, aren't they?" Came a strangely indistinct voice from behind her.

When she turned to look, there was a disturbingly blurred image of somebody standing right beside her, whom she could not recognize.

"Who are you?" she asked the blurry humanoid form.

"I am an Inverse of the Great Clan Magnus." came the indistinct voice. "I am here to save your people...people...people...people..." the blurry personage dissolved into the air, and soon too, did the children, the cottage, and finally it all returned to the grayness behind her eyelids.

Gasping a deep breath as she came out of her trance, she calmly looked around the room, "An Inverse of the Great Clan Magnus" she pondered the words of the blurry person. "_An Inverse of the Great Clan Magnus is the key to the survival of your people" _the words made their presence once again in her mind.

"I wonder who this Inverse is." she wondered aloud, "Who are they, were are they, and what will they do to rescue my people?" sighing, "I suppose I should ask Luna if she knows anything of this."

Fillia slipped into bed and lay, arms behind her head, staring at the ceiling.

"What do I know about the Inverse family anyway?" she pondered to her self, "I came here seeking the person in a prophecy, and that time it was an Inverse as well..."

In her mind, she could see the first time she came and stayed at this inn, she came to see if Luna Inverse was the person in the prophecy. After all, there were never many Inverses anywhere, they were not a large clan of people.

When she first saw Luna, a tall, strong, confident woman, well built as far as human figures went, with dark hair and flashing eyes filled with immense power, she thought at first surely she had found the Inverse of the prophecy.

She acted rather politely of course, and entrained Fillia after she got off work at the inn, taking her to the carnival that was in town, walking along the river banks where the trees draped out over the water in a distinctly lovely manner, she met Luna's parents, she even took her to a secret spot overlooking the ocean which Luna cherished as her own secret spot away from the madness of the world.

After everything however, when two wonderfully enjoyable weeks had passed, she finally told Fillia that there was surely some kind of mistake and that it couldn't possibly be she of whom the prophecy spoke and that Fillia should look for her younger sister Lina who was a sorceress of some power.

She even wrote a brief note which she promised would be enough to ensure the younger sister Lina's complete cooperation.

She left saddened, but now she wondered, what made her feel so sad? Was it the fact that Luna was not the one in the prophecy? Or was it that she would not get to spend any more time with this intriguing and electrifying human being who somehow seemed to just make her feel different. Made her feel so...so...alive!

"_Well_," she sighed to herself "_I suppose she will direct me to some other Inverse when the time comes_." rolling toward the window, looking out at the stars, she recalled Luna's question about what she would wish for the most, and now, she was less sure of that answer than she was before. "_What do I truly wish for?_" she asked her self, "_Oh well, I'll ask Miss Luna in the morning_." and she closed her eyes.

**Ep 9, Inset**

That night, as Fillia slept in the room she had the last time she stayed here, Luna slept in the room next door, having talked to Lina, Gourry, Alyth and Bruno late into the night.

Dragging herself to the room, she could hear the soft sound of Fillia's gentle breathing, and for a moment, stopped by the door, where she merely listened for several moments.

What was it about this beautiful magical creature that had her so bewitched?

The soft doe eyes? The long blond hair? The peaceful nature? The latent raw animal power? The incredible long tail? The...?" She fell off, drifting off to sleep.

She stood on a cliff by the seaside, and there was a cottage.

Outside the cottage stood the beautiful Fillia, hanging out clothing, humming a soft and beautiful tune, while little children ran around screaming and giggling, playing some kind of tag game. The children all had blond hair, stubby little wings and tails, but otherwise looked relatively human.

As she walked up to Fillia, she reached out and stroked the girl's lovely cheek with the back of her fingers.

In response, the lovely dragoness leaned her face into the fingers, closing her eyes softly and inhaling, before turning her lips to kiss Luna's fingers.

She set down the empty basket and took hold of Luna's outstretched fingers with her own hand and led the taller girl into the cottage.

Suddenly they were in a darkly lit bedroom lit only by the light of one window.

She was laying on her back and Fillia was on her knees above her, wearing a blue silky slip with golden flowers, which barely covered her middle body, exposing her shoulders and middle thigh. Luna wore a similar silk slip of a black background and blood red roses.

Fillia was not wearing a headdress and her hair simply hung down across her back and shoulders, draping all the way onto Luna's chest as she leaned forward, those innocent doe eyes gazing at her in total reverential adoration.

The voices of children giggling outside would pass by the window occasionally, but for the most part all she could hear was their heavy breathing.

Sweat glistened off the smooth skin of the dragoness, making her seem more electrifying to the look and as she raised her fingers gently to the shiny wet arms, the skin was slippery and soft, so inviting to the touch...

Fillia lowered her body until she was sitting on Luna's thighs, the warm moist skin heavy and soft upon her own legs.

Her long smooth tail began to slide up her leg from the gap created between their thighs and the bed, sliding up toward the gap which separated their private regions by barely a hand-span, and crossed up under a black silk slip toward her most private regions.

Suddenly it felt as if Luna's whole body was jolted by one of Lina's lighting bolts as she arched her back gasping wildly for air!

Her silk slip was propped up very high at the waistline and was stuck to her with a cool slimy feeling she had only recently learned existed.

"Oh no!" she gasped, looking around reflexively for the dragoness who was not in the room with her, "Fillia! What have I done!?"

**Ep 9, Chapter 3**

Luna awoke from a very powerful dream with a gasp and cried softly, "Oh no!" looking around reflexively for the dragoness who was not in the room with her, "Fillia! What have I done!?"

Rubbing herself reflexively where the tall cone rose from her black and red night slip, she felt the cool sticky gooey sensation she had recently learned of and rolled toward the wash basin with a groan, holding her hands over her groin until she could reach a towel.

"Ewwwww," she groaned, "What IS this mess anyway?" as she wiped it away in disgust.

Throwing the sticky towel in the linen receptacle, Luna took a guest bath robe, more towels, and slipped to the womens' bath early before anybody else awoke.

While she was in the bath, she took a moment to examine her self and although it made no sense, it was clearly a part of her body now, wherever it came from.

"Where did it come from?" she frowned as she did her best to stuff it back inside her, "Is this some by product of the curse plague? Or have I always had this?" she wondered very alarmed and aware that this was not how girls are supposed to be.

She heard voices and footsteps coming down the hallway and hurried up to leap out of the bath with a towel wrapped securely around her midsection, then slipping on the guest bathrobe, tying it tighter than she usually would have.

Passing by Lina who was groggy and disheveled, she nervously slipped on up to her own room, which she almost got into without challenge, but that Fillia stepped out, just pulling her door closed and backed into her, making her squeak in surprise, "Oop!" as she spun to see Fillia was also startled.

"I'm terribly sorry -" Fillia began her seeming new ritual of apologies.

"No-no-no-no!" Luna rebutted, "I'm the one who must apologize to you!" she said in a rather odd, slightly frightened tone.

"For what Miss Luna?" came the confused inquiry.

"Oh..." then she remembered that it was only a dream. A very very realistic dream, but a dream nonetheless, "Well, ummm..." thinking hastily, "Well for bumping into you just now!"

"But-" Fillia began to protest.  
Chuckling loudly to cut her off, she went on to say, "Well its nothing anyway, lets just forget about it and go have breakfast, shall we? I'm starved!"

This worked well for Fillia, who replied, "Umm...Okay," then looking at Luna's robes, "But you may want to change first."

With more nervous laughter, Luna replied, "Oh..heh-heh, yeah!"

**Ep 9, Chapter 4**

Breakfast was served to the four adventurers, and as they ate, they spoke of the current state of things.

"Okay people," Luna announced, Before we can resolve this problem, we needed to know what is written on the talismans so we have some idea how to resolve it."

"I agree that we have to know what is written on it, but for that we need a lore master or the Claire Bible." Fillia countered. "Where would we find such a person?"

"Oh! Hey!" Gourry raised his hand, "I know someone!"

"Who would you know, blockhead?" Lina growled at him disdainfully.

"That girl Sylphiel!" he protested, "She knows all kinds of stuff!"

"Well I can't believe it!" Lina regarded Gourry incredulously, "A real valid honest to gods IDEA for a change!"

To this he simply got a glum look at her left handed compliment. "You're welcome." he replied glumly, dropping his chin into his palm.

Well then everybody," Luna declared, "We know where we need to go next!" then remembering the talisman, "But before we go, I have to drop this off with poppa to see if it will help him get well or at lease buy us some time while we find the real cure!"

Alyth stood at the doorway and waved them off into the distance as she was prone to do, an then turned back inside, saying toward Bruno, "I do hope they save us all."

"Yes my love," his rich voice came through the kitchen serving window, "We all do." after a brief pause, he repeated, "We all do."


	10. Episode 10

**Episode 10**

"**Gods and Monsters?! The Revelations Just Keep Coming!"**

Luna went into the room with her father and placed the talisman on his chest over his heart while everybody watched through the thick glass window from outside.

One could not see any changes, but Luna was certain this was a very important step toward prolonging his life. No medications, no spells, no prayers seemed to be working up to this point, so perhaps the talisman would at least slow the progress.

With that completed, the two girls embraced their mother and aunt and left with the others toward Sairaag, in hopes of locating the one person they hoped would know how to read the writing on the remaining talismans.

The road went along the cliffs of Elmash Vale and the waterfalls along its rim cast up a steady spray which created multiple rainbows, making such a beautiful view, it put Fillia in a very warm, nostalgic mood. Walking beside Luna, she impulsively took up Luna's hand and leaned her head against Luna's shoulder.

Luna glanced down sideways nervously at Fillia, but wouldn't have dared withdraw her hand!

"L_uckily, Lina's too busy arguing with Gourry up ahead to notice!_" Luna thought to herself pensively, "_Because she would have made SUCH a scene out of this, who KNOWS how Fillia might react!_"

As they neared the peak, there was a pass which opened up looking over Sairaag, Sylphiel's homeland.

Gourry pointed out along a strip of exceptionally dense forest, "Her home is down in there. I think I see her chimney right..." he strained his arm as Lina looked down it, "There."

"Ok, I see it." she replied, "Fillia-" she was saying as she began to turn to look back at the dragoness behind Gourry and herself.

Fillia reflexively jerked herself away from Luna and clasped them in front of her innocently while Luna ever so slightly startled at the prospect of Lina seeing them.

"- I say its fastest if you teleport us there." as she completed her turn.

"Yes, Miss Lina," Fillia replied while looking at the ground to hide the blushing of her face.

The group materialized in the small cleared space before Sylphiel's cottage.

"Hello?" Lina knocked on the door, "Hello?" knocking again, "Sylphiel?" she knocked some more. "I wonder if she went to town or something."

"Well we should just wait here for her if the door is not locked." Gourry offered. "I'm sure she'll be back soon."

"I'm hungry!" Lina complained. "I don't just want to sit around here all day waiting."

The door suddenly opened and Lina who was standing in front of it jumped up screaming, "Aaaaa!" as Sylphiel's head popped out, and a barely audible, "No need to wait any longer, I'm finished now-Oh hello Gourry darling!" her soft faint voice exclaimed at almost normal levels.

"Don't scare me like that!" Lina shouted as Luna and Gourry laughed, "Hey! It's not funny!" turning to Sylphiel she demanded, "Why didn't you answer the door?"

"I did answer the door." Came her very soft voice, "I just came once I was finished what I was already doing."

"Well why didn't you say anything?"

"I did," she began.

"Lina," Luna growled angrily, "You can clearly see she is not a very loud speaking person."

"Well then she needs to BECOME one so we can HEAR her!" Lina complained.

"YOU need to LISTEN more carefully 'Lina the PINK'." Luna rebuked sternly.

This made Lina's face turn two shades of red, from embarrassed to angry, but she knew she was powerless against Luna, so she just clenched her fists and stalked off muttering expletives under her breath.

"Uhhh...'Lina the Pink?' " Gourry asked quizzically.

"WATCH IT WISE GUY!" she shouted while hitting him in the back of the head with a large boulder.

"Oh, Gourry Dear!" Sylphiel's soft voice exclaimed softly in pity and compassion as she knelt by his side, holding his head as stars swirled in his eyes and a knot grew on his scalp.

Lina growled furiously and struggled fruitlessly in Luna's iron grip trying to get at the dazed Gourry, while Fillia covered her mouth to prevent her from speaking any spells.

Luna simply said to Sylphiel, "I think you should take him inside."

**Ep 10, Chapter 2**

Some time later, inside Sylphiel's cottage, the four visitors all sat at her table while she examined one of the warding talismans.

"Hmm.." she frowned quizzically, "This is undeniably Mazokese, but its like a very very old dialect. And seeing how old they are, that's very old!" she sighed, resting her head to one side in her hand while holding the talisman in the other, frowning, then relaxing, then frowning some more...

"Mazokese?" Fillia gasped partly in horror, partly in disgust, tossing her warding talisman out onto the table.

You should hang on to that Fillia," Luna said softly in an admonishing tone, then to Sylphiel, she asked, "What does it say?"

"It says something here about the wind of dying..." she squinted,"no I think its more accurate to read it as a proper name..." she turned the page 180 degrees and looked at it again, "Ah. There. Deathwind." she pronounced, "They turned the name its self upside down, as part of the warding spell."

"So," Luna asked, "Who made it?"

"It doesn't say" Sylphiel replied.

"No history of any sort?" she probed further.

"None I can detect from the parts I can make out." she sighed at Luna.

"I hope this is not a dead end!" Fillia said worried, "How can we learn more about it?"

"The Claire Bible naturally," Lina said glumly, rubbing her bruised arms where Luna had clamped onto her to keep her from harming Gourry.

"That's impossible now isn't it?" Gourry asked, rubbing the bandages on his head.

"I don't know about that," Lina replied, "But then right now, the only one who I can readily say does know, is Xelloss."

"That worthless sack of orc turds." Luna growled at the name.

"Well," Lina smiled at her sister's discomfort, "It looks like we'll be going to see him eventually..."

**Ep 10, Chapter 3**

Naga knew the days were drawing near, there was dirt encrusted to her cheeks from so many years of tears streaming down her face.

He hair was matted down, plastered to her head and somewhat on her face, and she could do nothing about it.

Her wrists were almost too painful to move, but she would move them simply to keep them from atrophying. They would not allow her to reach her face because if she could remove the mask, she would be able to cast spells and break free.

She would shift as much as her chains would allow, and she would kick away the rats as best her weakened body would cooperate.

The best she could hope for was an occasional bucket of water or two if she was lucky, being thrown on her to wash her off.

"I don't know who you know, you worthless hag," Theolis Rhystan said in an evil tone, "But it seems somehow, somebody eliminated one of my men here recently."

She could only eye him in pain and hatred, not a word to even say or spit on the scum of a man who was brazenly accusing her of even more actions she knew nothing about.

"I'll find out who did it," he said, "And when I do," he pointed a threatening jewel encrusted finger at her, "They'll be right there next to you as you burn!"

Suddenly, Naga was led to think of the only person she knew who was prone to kill henchmen, the beautiful and lovely Lina Inverse. Her eyes grew wide with realization, "This means 'his men' are bandits!" she said within herself.

"Ah-hah!" he misread her realization as a reaction of fear, "So you DO know who it is!" he declared with an air of triumph. Waggling his finger, he continued, "I won't stop until I have what I am after and not you, not your cohorts, whomever they may be, not even this pathetic excuse for a QUEEN is going to get in my way." there was so much venom in his voice, he forgot to mask himself and it was suddenly obvious that even the act of being old was just part of a clever and elaborate ruse.

"I think he's admitting something of importance here," she came to the sudden realization, "I need to act terrified so I can perhaps get more information from him!" she planned within herself. With this she started shaking her head as one who is terrified for another, eyes wide as one in dear, making sounds like a frightened denial.

"Oh..." he said with a sinister and smooth voice, "I see I have touched a nerve!" rubbing his hands together in eager anticipation, "Is it a lover? A parent? A sibling? A CHILD even perhaps?" a wicked laugh of delight came from him.

She continued to act terrified and he continued to probe while pride swelled within him, "You knew who my men were, didn't you?" he sought leads, thinking she knew so much more than she ever would have dreamed of knowing, "You came to save Elyst VanHusen from my men, didn't you?"

She continued to shake her head in denial while thinking to her self, "I'm amazed he's telling me all of this so plainly!"

"I bet you went to interfere with my plans to take his magic rune stones so you could take them your self, didn't you!?" and with that, while still rubbing his hands, he did a full upper body nod while turning a slow circle, before coming back to face her, "You know," he said, suddenly going from an icy expression to one of mock sympathy, "You were such a beautiful young woman, and with so MANY useful talents," he took a deep breath and then let out a heavy sigh, "I could have used a woman like you." while shaking his head in mock regret, "Both as a part of my endeavors as well as in my bed." at this his eyes took on an evil gleam, and for the first time in the entire conversation, a very REAL fear came to her!

"This wicked bastard would try to have his way with me?!" she realized in terror, "Oh my dear Lina! What have I DONE?!"

"No matter," he continued, "Even if your people were to kill off every one of my men, I could simply get more, and arrange them all under a new name and nobody would ever be the wiser for it." then pointing directly at her, "But YOU!" his eyes went livid and all traces of his phony old man's voice completely dissolved, "YOU had the NERVE to interrupt my perfectly orchestrated plans by keeping my men from retrieving for me the Tahstern Rune Stones!" with this he lifted one hand palm up, fingers upwards in a gesture of frustration, "You have DELAYED my plans these past two full YEARS!"

"What plans is this mad man talking about?" she asked herself in deep concern.

"It took me two full years to obtain enough magical power to defeat The Monstrous Zolemegustar!" he clenched those upraised fingers into a trembling fist which he slowly and deliberately pulled downwards as if pulling down the very name out of the air, and into his chest as he folded over it quite melodramatically.

Then it struck Naga, "This fool believes in that make believe thing she made up!" he's REALLY mad!

"With the kingdom of New Xoanna in my control," he raised to stand to his full height, revealing even further how far his elaborate old man ruse had been worked upon people, "I shall SMASH the puny nations around me and take over the WORLD!" with this, and his eyes wide like an insane person, he raised his clenched fist slowly into the air, as he trembled with mad excitement.

**Ep 10, Chapter 4**

Later that afternoon, after much discussion concerning the odds of finding Xelloss at Wolf Pack Island, it was determined that in all likelihood, he would find them if they just went there, seeing as it was his home base in this world and that Greater Beast Zelas Metallium also lived there as well.

Getting him to give up the answers they sought, however, would be a lot more difficult!

As it drew on toward evening, after another healing spell by Sylphiel, Gourry felt alright enough to go out and chop some firewood.

As Sylphiel set out to cook the group dinner, she asked if anybody would be willing to go out and look for mushrooms in the woods.

Fillia volunteered, and Luna decided it would be a nice way to spend some time with the lovely dragoness, so she said she would go along with her for protection.

"It was very nice of you to come to help me," Fillia said after they walked a distance from the cottage, "But you know I could simply turn into my other form and -"

"I know," Luna replied in a gentle tone while gazing upwards at the clouds, "I just wanted to come along."

"I appreciate that." the golden haired girl replied, "I like being able to spend time like this," she sighed, "As a temple priestess, all I did was pray, burn incense and talk to people about their problems all day," she shrugged looking around for mushrooms as they walked in the woods, leaves scrunching under their feet, "I never had a person like you," she paused while thinking of how to say what she felt, "somebody to talk about my own self with that is."

"You know," Luna pondered, "I would have never imagined that, seeing as you are so beautiful..." she trailed off, as they both blushed. "I-I-I didn't mean anything by that..." she said in nervous caution, "I just meant -"

"A priestess of the Dragon King is not allowed to have friends, lovers, or ever marry Luna." she said as she stopped and turned toward the tall buxom woman, "We're devoted to service and worship our entire lives."

"Oh." Luna looked down at her feet, "I see." then looking up at the late afternoon sky as it began to turn colors, "Neither am I."

"Because you are The Knight of Ceiphied?" Fillia ventured.

"Yes." Luna responded with a heavy sigh, "I don't even really serve any purpose to be realistic about it though," she began walking, arms swinging in youthful wistfulness, Fillia matching stride, "I didn't ask for this, it just happened, and nobody knows how or why."

"Surely it has to be of some divine purpose," Fillia suggested, "I can't imagine simply being born with such power and responsibilities with no purpose at all..."

"It seems that way I suppose," Luna conceded, "But as long as I have been alive, its been nothing but work and practicing with Einlanzer, day in, and day out," then she paused, turned, and looked directly into Fillia's upturned gaze, "That is, until now."

Fillia reflexively inhaled deeply and sharply at the presence of the moment, before shyly breaking their mutual gaze and blushing, while looking away and ever so softly saying, "I'm no longer a priestess you know..." the tone of her words almost having a leading note that there was more to be said, yet she left it there without finishing the unknown conclusion of her thoughts.

With another deep sigh, jerking her head sharply toward the sky with her own shy blush, yet a sense of both sorry and frustration, Luna replied, "But I'm still a Knight."

Bending down and picking up a stick she saw on the forest floor and throwing it off into the distance with an air of disgust, "And on top of that," she added with pain in her voice, "I'm immortal too."

"So you must live throughout eternity forever alone..." Fillia said in soft realization, tears coming to her eyes, as she still looked away shyly, then turning back toward Luna, snatching up her hands driven by emotion on the spur of the moment "That is such a TERRIBLE fate to lay upon a person!"

Luna almost choked as the powerful intense emotions from the lovely dragoness washed over her and coursed through her like an ocean, "Isn't is though?" then, in fear she may break down in tears, Luna forced herself to completely change the subject, "You know," she said haltingly, "We really should find those mushrooms you were sent to collect."

"I suppose you are right," Fillia replied, catching herself and releasing Luna's soft hands, "I passed several by several minutes ago."

"You did?" Luna said in realization, "Oh, my..." then regaining her composure, she chuckled, "Well best we get them and get back before they eat without us!"

With that, the two girls turned back toward the cottage and the waiting mushrooms.


	11. Episode 11

**Episode 11**

"**Tricks, Traitors and Traps! Another City of Zombies!?"**

Early the next morning the whole group departed from Sylphiel's cottage heading in the only direction that a known source for access to the Claire Bible could hopefully be found.

They were off to find Xelloss and find a way to make him reveal a way to it.

"I bet I know how to make him tell." Luna suggested with a hint of menace in her voice.

"How is that?" Sylphiel asked.

"The same way I made him take us to Lina!" Luna declared with threatening enthusiasm.

"He brought you to me?" Lina asked shocked.

"In an instant..." Luna replied with bravado.

"He's one smart Mazoku, I can't imagine how you got hold of him!" Lina said, rather incredulously.

"His intelligence is not in question." Luna replied.

"So what will you do then?" Fillia asked.

"I'm working on it..." Luna replied coolly while gazing up at the early morning sky. "But right now," she declared, "Lets not worry about it too much shall we?" and with a great big stretch, she shouted out in her god enhanced megaphone voice, "Its a great day to be alive and we should ENJOY the WONDERFUL blessings Ceiphied has given us!"

The others were too busy plugging their ears to notice in the distance, a heavy thud was barely noticeable, as Xelloss, who had been listening in, lost his balance and fell from his perch in a tree.

A mischievous grin of victory came across Luna's face, "I see my plan is going to work already!" she chuckled to herself slyly.

**Ep 11, Chapter 2**

By midday, they had reached a large village and the two gluttons of the group got into a battle over which eating establishment to empty, while Luna and Fillia began window shopping. Sylphiel simply hung back a little bit behind Lina and Gourry, making sure to remain close to her beloved beau while not getting close enough to get hit.

As Luna and Fillia went from shop to shop, Luna would always open the door and let Fillia enter and leave first. This had the added benefit of allowing her to watch Fillia without seeming suspicions or perverted. As Fillia's emotions rose higher and higher, her tail would show more and more often, and would even sweep side to side much the way a happy kitten's tail would, and the glistening gold rose would sparkle!

After buying a couple of small trinkets for each other, they decided they would go see how the others were doing.

For all practical purposes, they were acting very much like a couple in love.

As they entered the tavern, all eyes were on Lina and Gourry as usual, so they got a table off in the corner where they would be less obvious.

"One thing about Lina that has never changed is her obnoxious demeanor and her appetite!" Luna muttered.

"Well," Fillia offered, "She is still young you know..."

"When she is a hundred years old," Luna breathed, "I seriously do not expect to see much change if any."

"Children all mature at different rates," Fillia offered apologetically.

"You seem to have matured rather beau-" she caught herself and feigned a cough, "nicely."

Fillia giggled mirthfully, "But my dear Miss Luna!" she declared light heartedly, "I'm 1528 years old!"

Luna paused for a moment, then after mulling it over, replied, "But in DRAGON years..."

Fillia blushed deeply, "That's fifteen human years..."

"Its ok though," Luna said in a motherly knowing tone, "You're still the most mature fifteen year old I have ever met." and she concluded the words with a warm loving smile that would met the heart of a demon. As Fillia's eyes got so round it made Luna uncomfortable, she called the waiter, "Waiter," she beckoned, "What's your house specialty?

"We have bear, boar, alligator, and goose this month my lady." the waited replied.

Turning to Fillia, Luna asked, "Do any of those sound good to you?"

"I think I would have the goose please." the dragoness replied softly.

"Yes," Luna conceded, "That does sound wonderful." then looking at the side menu, "And we'll have a carafe of White Zinfandel and another of pink zustiphar nectar please."

As they dined, they talked about their lives some more, and occasionally glanced over to see how much the two gluttons had eaten, look at each other and giggle about it.

**Ep 11, Chapter 3**

After everybody had eaten their fill, they got back on the road heading south out of the village, and that is where they saw a bulletin posted reading the following, which Lina read aloud: "Welcome one and all to the Summer Equinox Festival being hosted in New Xoanna by the illustrious Queen Martina and King Zangulus!

There will be games, rides, food, and even a special FIREWORKS show at sunset featuring a special once in a lifetime BURN THE WITCH special segment hosted by the Queen herself!"

"'Burn the witch'?" Sylphiel asked in shock, "What kind of show is that?!"

"Who cares?!" Lina replied glibly, "It says there will be FREE FOOD, so I've GOTTA go see the show!"

"Hey!" Gourry chimed in, "I'm all for that too!"

"You always think with your stomach, Lina Inverse," Luna growled reprovingly, "Its going to get you KILLED one of these days..."

"Oh, whatever!" Lina disregarded Luna's warning, "I, Lina Inverse am the most powerful sorceress in the world!" raising her fist in defiance, "Nothing can stop me!"

"I hope you're right Lina," Sylphiel replied in a soft but concerned tone, "For everyone's sake!"

That evening, they found themselves near the border of New Xoanna, the boundary being obscenely yet comically obvious by the hundreds of small bulletins posted like pickets along the borderline and all down the trail which led out into an open prairie downward towards the ocean in the far distance.

"Wow!" Gourry marveled, "Would you look at all these signs!"

"I think they've over done this thing just a little," Lina commented, slowly beginning to get annoyed and even just a little bit suspicious, "This is just far too overdone in my opinion."

"I agree." Fillia chorused, "This is just too over produced to be all on the up-and-up."

"I would go in expecting it to be a trap then," Luna interjected with a note of gravity in her voice, "And plan accordingly."

"I think you are right." Sylphiel's faint voice conceded, "This is all just too good to be true."

"Well," Gourry protested, "What about the free food part?"

"Ever heard of POISON you MORON?" Lina shouted as she bashed him over the head, driving him into the ground.

"Owwww!" Gourry complained, a look of resentment on his face, Lina!" followed by a gasping sigh.

"That's a little too much Lina!" Sylphiel protested, kneeling by Gourry's side and casting a healing spell on him, "There there Gourry Dear!" she clucked as she helped him out of the post hole he found himself in.

**Ep 11, Chapter 4**

As the five of them entered the city, there indeed was a carnival underway, and everywhere one looked there could be seen food, games, contests, performers, and of course, royal guards!

"This place is SWARMING with guards!" Lina complained, "You can't walk ten steps without seeing them! Its almost as if its a show of force rather than a public celebration!"

"As I said," Luna reminded her, "It smells like a trap to me."

"Yeah sis," she breathed with a wary, steel eyed look of determined recognition, "I have to say you're right on this one."

"I'm always right." Luna said almost flatly, but with just a hint of haughtiness, chin held high like an aristocrat looking down on a peasant.

"Hey now!" Lina complained.

As they mingled with the crowds, they passed by several booths which were all advertising this 'free food' which was always the same, and was posted as, 'compliments of our beloved Queen Martina'.

"You see what I see over there?" Lina said with a squint in her eye, in a suspicious, low tone, almost a whisper, "The only 'free' food is being passed out by Martina and its all the same selections."

"Poisoned? Drugged?" Luna suggested with the same suspicious, low tone under her breath.

"Probably" Lina agreed.

Fillia quietly slid up between the two Inverse sisters and asked, "What if its the same thing Xelloss used on the people in that other village when we were searching for Lina?"

"What was that all about?" Lina looked at her sideways.

"That's right!" Luna whispered harshly, "Ok people, there's only one way to test, and Fillia, you already know it." Turning to Gourry, "Even you can do this one!" she pulled him close into the huddle.

After a few minutes they all met back up at the city square by the fountain, and exchanged notes. Sure enough, some of the people were indeed exhibiting the same form of seeming silent madness as the ones in the other village!

"So its understood." Luna said in a low conspiratorial tone, "Whatever is going on, it has to do with this drug, some well chosen music, and I'm betting something to do with this fireworks display thing."

"What about the 'burning witch' thing?" Sylphiel asked in a worried tone.

"Very well could be the culminating act that seals them somehow into some kind of permanent lifelong hypnosis." Luna answered back continuing in the same tone as before, "We have to find the source and stop it." then glancing around at each one of them like a quarterback to his team, Luna said in a hushed but urgent voice, "Ok – lets go!"

The five of them split up and dissolved into the crowd.


	12. Episode 12

**Episode 12**

"**Traps Within Traps! It All Comes To A Head!"**

A long procession was heading toward the top of the hill across from the castle.

Two columns of white hooded robed figures marched twenty five deep, both ahead of, and behind, the one lone shackled figure, who too was hooded, but instead a white hood, this one was black, and instead of robes, a dirty, rotted, filth encrusted harness of leather, only a mere shadow of its former glory as the soft supple gleaming leather bikini-like outfit made famous by Naga the White Serpent. Long, straggly, filthy hair dragged the ground behind, unwashed in years and mired so terribly it was matted and caked.

And as the robed figures were humming an almost monotone cadence as a single low drum beat a slow death march to the top of the hill.

As They passed through the crowded streets, people stopped conversing and began staring as if hypnotized by the sight. In reality, some of them were already in a state of drug induced hypnosis and simply fixed on the drum beat, forgetting everything else around them.

As the procession moved along, closer, ever, ever closer, one could hear a faint sobbing, barely discernible behind the constant bee-like monotone drone of a hundred male voices.

Lina was rounding the corner looking for clues when she saw the procession. As she watched them go by, pair by pair, holding a chain between each pair as if pulling a great load. The strange shrill tone came to her, weak, so very very weak, but something inside her recognized it instantly.

Looking around trying to see the source of the sound, she almost failed to realize its source!

"Na...ga?" she looked around, "I hear her some place not too far from here..."

As the lone figure in the middle of the procession came past the street she was standing at the intersection of, she realized that the sound that she first thought was Naga's laughter, was not laughter at all, but the desperate wail of a condemned woman...

Chills ran down her spine, and she almost began blasting her way through the hundred man army holding her struggling body by an immense iron chain. "That's Naga, but I can't just break her free or I'll be in trouble myself!" she thought to her self in a near panic, "I have to find the others and see how to make sense of all of this!" and with that, she shouted "Ray wing!" and leapt up into the sky toward their planned meeting place.

**Ep 12, Chapter 2**

Fillia was near the castle walls where she was using her special senses to look for anything unusual when she came across a strange magic presence in the castle proper. The magic presence was not distinct, but it was definitely malevolent.

Something within the castle was formed of black magic and was unmistakably evil.

Knowing how evil the Mazoku are by nature, she took the precaution of teleporting some distance away, hoping nobody would see or sense her.

Her first attempt placed her in the guard's quarters, specifically, the bath house. What she saw almost made her scream, but instead, she teleported out again, this time materializing in a pig sty, which also almost made her scream, but she then teleported into an armory.

Looking down at her feet, she simply said "Ewwwwww!" and cast a cleanse spell on her self to destroy the pig filth.

Listening and scanning for the source of the evil presence she detected before, she crept out of the armory and slipped down the hall toward it, listening to everything, holding her breath until she could hear her own heartbeats.

As she neared the source, she could hear a faint humming and a muffled chanting.

A small alcove in the wall which seemed completely normal, was emitting the sounds in a very unusual manner and the source of evil was extremely intense as if it were just beyond some form of barrier.

Spending her entire life within a castle like structure such as the old temple, she knew all too well that this was not the way alcoves should be. Waving her warding talisman in front of the opening made the inside back section of the wall dissolve into swirling gray, showing her that it was in fact a Mazoku illusion spell disguising a dimensional portal to another location, possibly in the monster realm.

"So this is where a monster enters and leaves this castle undetected!" she thought to herself, "I better go tell the others!"

"So you think you know something useful, do you?" came a sinister voice from directly behind her, "Or are you going to try to tell me you're merely a lost carnival patron out looking for the bathroom?"

As the voice began to boom with laughter, however, Fillia's senses being overwhelmed with the presence of the sinister malevolent evil, spun and screamed with all her being, which released a brilliant laser burst, slashing through both the castle's stone walls and burning the grotesque monster-god Dynast Grauscherra's priest Grau.

As the Mazoku priest bellowed in pain, the young dragoness wasted no time and teleported away.

**Ep 12, Chapter 3**

Luna had been inspecting the city as were the others and was on the hillside opposite the castle, when she came upon a rather ghastly sight.

A stone structure made much like an altar stood, with the garish and ghastly face of some kind of demon with the words "All bow down before The Monstrous Zomelgustar" in a cast bronze plate beneath is, which stood easily the height of a large tree.

Before it was a circular pit in the stone which had grooves in it which led to some point under the ghastly demonic image. These were blackened and had signs of soot and ash, indicating that burning oil was poured into the pool through these grooves.

Out of the center of the pool rose a large stone pillar with shackles and manacles affixed to it by large iron rings at neck, waist and ankle height, placed on a small round pedestal, leaving about enough room to stand with one's toes overhanging the edge.

A sliding metal walk was embedded into the fore side of the altar, where one would clearly lead humans or monsters or whatever onto the diocese and secure them to the stone pillar to be burned alive before the masses.

This shocked and appalled Luna so much, she could feel the power of Ceiphied's fury well up within her.

With several hooded cloaked figures milling about and around the altar, it was clear that they were preparing to use the alter tonight.

"So THIS is what they meant by a 'Witch Burning' ey?" she growled to her self, "Nothing more agonizing that being burned to death...I bet a Mazoku would get quite a charge out of that."

Taking time to count the figures attending the altar would waste precious time, but a glance indicated there were easily a hundred, perhaps twice that many, milling around the massive altar and going in and out of three heavily constructed fortified buildings nearby, one on each side, and one to its rear.

With that quick estimate noted in her mind, she sped back to the designated meeting place in the city square..

**Ep 12, Chapter 4**

Fillia appeared first, Lina swooped down from the sky seconds later, Gourry came running up breathing heavily, covered in blood and scratches, Luna 'zapped' to the spot stopping suddenly as only she with her special abilities could do, and Sylphiel came running up panting holding a sheet of paper.

They all began talking at once until Luna raised her hands and ordered them to stop and speak in an orderly fashion. She simply pointed a commanding finger at Lina.

Lina began to speak, but before she could say what she was going to say, she saw on the rumpled paper the hand drawn image of Naga and snatched it from Sylphiel's hand, then declared, "This is who they intend to burn!" she shouted in alarm, "They're leading her there right now!" her whole body trembling in fear and alarm.

Luna pointed at Fillia next.

There's a big terrible monster in the castle and it has a secret portal in one of the walls and it tried to capture me!

Turning to Sylphiel who pointed at the picture Lina now held, then to Gourry.

"There's a whole bunch of bandits prepared to collapse the castle walls during the fireworks show using some kind of explosives like Jillas had!" he said panting, "I had to beat it out of one of them." and he shook his hand which showed his knuckles were bloody from punching.

Sylphiel reflexively began casting a healing spell on it.

As the last one left, Luna had everyone's story and said flatly, "We have a rescue to perform." then turning to Fillia, "Take us right up...there." as she pointed to the top hill, "Top of the rear building behind that big ugly altar."

In a flash, they were atop the building overlooking everything below, and right in front of a few guards who were caught unawares.

Within seconds, Gourry and Luna dispatched them and gathered up their armor and weapons leaving them unconscious in their underwear.

"What can we do from here?" Fillia whispered to Luna.

"We need to see if there are any formal charges against her."

"It says here, "Lina whispered harshly, "For cold blooded murder, robbery, disorderly conduct, and blasphemy!"

"Blasphemy?" Luna looked at her askance, "Of what?"

"Probably Martina's hideous invention here." Lina whispered back, "She thinks its a god."

Fillia looked at Lina incredulously, "What?"

"She made this whole thing up because she wants to take over the world some day." Lina explained, "And apparently Naga told her or somebody else it was a phony and now they're calling it blasphemy."

"Can you kill somebody for that?" Sylphiel asked in fear for Naga's life"

"I don't know the laws here about that," Lina said, "But there's no way she would murder anybody!"

Drum beats began fading into earshot, letting them know Naga's hundred man escort was approaching.

"You sure about that?" Gourry asked, peeking over the side at the immense entourage filing up the hill toward the altar.

"Look buster," Lina grabbed him by the face pulling him to an eye-to-eye stare which would freeze the blood of a fire dragon while growling, "I've known Naga a lot longer than I've known you and I know her really damn well!" she added more defensively of Naga, "Besides that," Lina looked at them all around, almost embarrassed for the woman, "Naga faints at the sight of blood!"

"But what if she accidentally killed somebody?" Sylphiel asked, never having met Naga.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Lina barked under her breath, almost forgetting they were trying to be stealthy, "Naga is almost as good a sorceress as me and she NEVER strikes an enemy accidentally!"

Down below the drumming suddenly stopped.

They all turned and crept up to the edge to look down and see what was going on below.

As they peered over the edge they could see how terrible Naga looked and were appalled at what they saw.

She was chained to the stone pillar now, and the metal bridge was extended, so that directly before her, one old man in a very gaudy and official looking robe, hands encrusted with jeweled rings, neck weighed down with multiple gold chains, held out a rather official looking scroll

Naga's hood had been lifted off, showing the heavy leather mask that pressed against her face below her nose, the bruised and bloodied face, one eye swollen shut, nose bleeding, tears wetting years of grime until it made dark steaks down her neck, her hair was matted and stuck to her back, her wrists were swollen and infected, she was trembling, and had a look of sheer terror on her face despite it being beaten so badly she was barely recognizable.

Whip lashes crossed her body everywhere, legs, arms, chest and back.

Lina peered closely as the man unrolled the rather official looking scroll, which upon closer inspection, they from their vantage point behind him could clearly see was completely blank.

"Hey..." Lina whispered, "That scroll is completely empty!"

"Uh-huh," Luna murmured, giving her a sideways glance, "This is a set up for certain."

Down below, Theolis Rhystan began speaking aloud to the crowd, pretending to read from the empty scroll, "Fellow citizens of this beautiful land, loyal vassals of Her Majesty Queen Martina Zoana Mel Navratilova, we come here today on this most joyous and festive occasion to celebrate the wonderful and bountiful blessings of The Monstrous Zomelgustar and the benevolence of our illustrious queen!"

"So," he added with pomp ans circumstance, "It is with great honor and pleasure that I, Lord Theolis Rhystan, Grand Magistrate -"

"He's pledged to that monster I saw earlier." Fillia whispered, "I feel his presence."

"That figures," Lina growled, "So now we're fighting a monster as well as possibly the entire city."

"Not if we find and kill the monster first," Luna whispered conspiratorially.

"We need all our forces here though!" Lina whispered harshly.

"We'll play it by ear." Luna reassured her, "When the time is right, we'll take the appropriate actions."

"- and as to the act of cold blooded murder, " the man proceeded, "herein she was caught red handed with the victim's blood on her hands."

"ALRIGHT!" Lina leapt up, blazing with anger, "I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS SHIT!" and with that, she followed with "FIREEEEEE BALLLLLL!" and blasted the men far enough away from Naga so as to not hurt her in her severely weakened state.

Gourry and Luna leapt over the wall and began clashing with the altar keepers who did in fact turn out to be well armed and armored. These couple of hundred men were well trained and well prepared. It was a trap.

With a small ornate dagger produced from his cloak, Theolis Rhystan turned and pressed the blade to the neck of the terrified woman, "I caught you at last!" he bellowed in triumph," then eying Lina who held the high ground, "Well, well, well!" a smug, predatory grin crossing his face while he slipped into his natural form, of a tall strong young man, "It looks like we have the whole pack of rats in one trap now!"

Fillia and Sylphiel had remained hidden beneath the parapet of the building and were looking back to see the guards which rushed the roof from a secret hatchway which appeared out of thin air, just like the one Fillia had seen before. With her peculiar "meep" sound, she quickly dispatched the guards at a distance, slicing through them like a blade.

"Doesn't really look that way, now does it?" Lina answered back defiantly, "I'm giving you to the count of three before I, Lina Inverse let go with a dragon slave like you have NEVER seen before!"

"It looks like I'm the one with the advantage," Theolis Rhystan replied, "Seeing as killing all these people who mean nothing to me, is not going to do anything to stop my plans," then glancing at Naga and pulling back her hair to bare her neck more openly, "Whereas clearly," and to everyone's disgust, he licked the blood from her swollen eye, "I have the one thing you want the most, and whether I kill her, or you kill her, either way she's just as dead." and he let out a hungry low chuckle sounding more like a monster than a human.


	13. Episode 13

**Episode 13**

"**Last Minute Save! Martina Apologized?"**

As the explosions echoed through the valley, Martina already realized that something was not going according to the promised evening itinerary because she saw the flash of the fireballs and the unwelcome presence of the infamous Lina Inverse, Gourry Gabriev and some others she did not recognize.

"What in the name of The Monstrous Zomelgustar is going on?!" she gasped as she lay down her opera viewing spectacles. Turning to Zangulus, she asked, "Did you know anything about this?"

He replied in equal disbelief while continuing to gaze upon the spectacle, "I hadn't a clue!"

"Well I'm going up there right now to see what the matter is!" and immediately dashed from the balcony, through their bedchambers to the hallway calling in a loud voice, "Coach! Coach! Ready me a fast coach immediately!" and several men broke into a run to execute her orders.

"I'll get to the heart of this matter no matter what it takes!" she fussed angrily.

"Do you wish me to come along?" Zangulus asked.

"Well of course I want you to come along!" she frowned at him, "You're the king!"

Sighing in defeat, he responded, "Yes my love..." and he followed her brisk stride toward the palace livery where they boarded a coach and rode it swiftly out of the castle, up the main avenue, and eventually to the top of the hill where they were shocked to see the standoff in progress.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Martina demanded.

"That's my line!" Lina shouted back from the rooftop, "Why are you trying to kill my friend Naga here?"

"That's a matter of the state of New Xoanna!" Martina barked indignantly, "It has nothing to do with you!"

"When its my friends," Lina shouted even louder, "It has everything to do with me!"

"Heh," Gourry said amused, "I guess she didn't learn a lesson the last time you hit her city with a dragon slave, huh Lina?"

"So that's why this city looks like it was built inside a crater." Luna said, "I was wondering."

"You wouldn't!" Martina gasped.

"Try me!" Lina shouted and began to raise her hands, her demon stones taking on their usual pre-spell glow.

"Wait! Wait!" Zangulus interrupted, "Can't we find a more peaceful resolution to all of this?"

"You tell me!" Lina shouted, "You're the ones trying to kill an innocent person here!"

Suddenly focusing on Theolis Rhystan for the first time, Martina realized that he did not look normal. "Whaaaaaaaaaaat?"

Looking rather caught, but only for an instant, Theolis Rhystan's expression changed from cunning to surprise to predatory in a matter of seconds as he declared, "You may have thwarted my plans this time, as he began to yank the blade across Naga's throat, "But you won't stop me in the future!"

As he slashed her neck the blade was stopped part way through the move as Einlanzer severed his arm from his shoulder, Luna shoving him into the pit of oil and away from the chained woman who was now spraying blood.

"Fillia!" Luna shouted, "Hurry here now!"

Fillia responded immediately and began healing Naga's open wound with her powerful white magic while Luna faced the rapidly respawning Theolis Rhystan who had already begun re-growing the severed limb.

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!" Martina screamed in horror and shock as the magistrate transformed before her eyes from an injured human into a grotesque monstrosity with six horns about its head and a long spiked tail.

As the gathered crowd witnessed this transmutation, they all broke out in screams of terror and fled all directions, leaving only the people of the party, Martina, Zangulus and the new version of Theolis anywhere in sight.

"This is not going to go well," Luna breathed, "He's pledged to a monster, so I can't kill him without destroying the pledge stone!"

"Get Naga to safety Fillia!" Lina shouted then leapt down from the roof drawing her dirk to aide Luna against the monstrosity Luna was circling.

Fillia teleported Naga and herself to the rooftop where she and Sylphiel began as a team administering healing and restoration spells to Naga who was on the very edge of death from the stress, shock and abuse, complicated by the sudden blood loss from the deep gash.

While Martina and Zangulus looked on the fight, a thunderous boom resonated behind them as the front side of the palace exploded, then as they spun to watch, collapsed upon its self.

"What the...?" her eyes grew wide in horror. Where she had been standing mere minutes ago was now a heap of rubble. "He-" she gasped, "He tried to kill us!" she screamed in anger and alarm.

This sent Zangulus into action, leaping from the coach and drawing his sword toward the monstrosity, "I may not have valued my own life at one time," he growled, "But my wife and unborn child are an entirely different matter!" as he lunged at the monster which was Theolis Rhystan.

"Come at me puny human," Theolis Rhystan hissed, "I love the taste of blood!" while easily sidestepping the swordsman and slashing through the back of his fine white jacket, leaving deep gashes which bled.

Luna took the opportunity to catch Theolis Rhystan off guard and impale him in the chest with Einlanzer. Because of the pledge, this did not kill him, but it did severely weaken him and give her physical control over him.

The result of this action, however, was that the two monsters Grau and Grou suddenly appeared on each side of her and Theolis.

Lina, seeing this, holstered her dirk and began summoning the Ragna Blade.

As she called upon the powerful magical weapon, these two monsters, which knew already of its existence realized that their lives were at risk, cried out, "Let's get out of here!" and "Yeah! There are plenty of other humans we can find!" and they abandoned their pledged human.

"Fillia!" Luna shouted.

"Yes Miss Luna?" she replied with emotion in her voice.

"Is Naga safe to travel yet?"

"She's alive," Fillia shouted back from the rooftop, "But she will need much more healing to be in good health!"

"If she will manage well in Sylphiel's care, go to that place you spoke about!"

"Understood Miss Luna!" she replied and vanished from the rooftop in a flash.

Lina closed in on the struggling Theolis, and with the Ragna Blade, instead of slicing him in half, she simply cut open his distorted lizard-like gut, where she then began summoning a fire ball of epic proportions.

The fireball began burning him from the inside out, roaring loudly and spewing flames and pieces of burning flesh in all directions.

The roaring led the semi-conscious Naga to arouse and climb to her knees to peer down from the rooftop on the strange scene below, despite Sylphiel's protests that she must rest and remain still to be healed.

Barely making out her former tormentor by the gold chains and jewel encrusted rings the monster version of his former self wore, she realized the reason he had been so able to do unto her all these mad things he had planned without ever being caught.

She also realized that the one she loved, Lina Inverse was presently administering severe retribution upon him very much like the agonizing death he had just intended to put her though.

"Finally," she sighed weakly, "I am avenged." and she lay down again,

"You can never kill me!" he bellowed in pain over the roar of the flames emitting from his insides, "They may never rescue me, but I'm linked to the priests of Dynast Grauscherra so I'm immortal!"

"So you think..." Luna chuckled as she twisted Einlanzer in his chest and Lina continued casting a sustained fireball into his flaming abdomen which seemed to re-grow as fast as the fireball burned it away...

"You know," Lina growled, "Nothing pisses me off as much as somebody trying to hurt my friends!"

Fillia suddenly appeared with her arms full of small items she had found, apparently all of them magical, "I think its one of these here," she said as she appeared.

"Noooooo!" Theolis screamed as he saw the collection of items.

"Just destroy all of them and we'll know!" Luna shouted over the roar of the fireball spell.

"Yes Miss Luna!" she shouted back obediently, and then as she dumped them all on the ground, she used her peculiar magic laser breath, and with a single "Meep!" the lance of pure white light reduced them all to smoke and sparks.

An instant later, the pledge stone being destroyed and his sustaining bond severed, he exploded into a thousand little bits all over the party, the coach and the city he had planned to take control of.

"Yes," Naga whispered softy, tears of gratitude and joy falling from her eyes, "By my beloved, I have been avenged." and she relaxed, letting herself for the first time in two years fall into a peaceful deep sleep.

**Ep 13, Chapter 2**

Naga awoke in a rather fine bed, in a rather comfortable silk night gown, within the remaining part of Martina's castle, with Sylphiel and Fillia looking over her from two chairs.

"She's awake!" Fillia said in a hushed but excited tone.

"Where am I?" Naga looked up, and then slowly sat up, looking around, then slowly down at her self.

"You're in the remaining part of the castle." Fillia answered.

"The castle of that mad woman who put me in the dungeon?"

"Apparently she was lied to." Sylphiel's faint soft voice answered, "Lina cleared up all the lies that remained concerning the events which almost led to yours and her own death, as well as the death of the baby she has inside her.

"She's pregnant?" Naga mused, then, "Where's Lina now?"

"She's probably still eating." Fillia giggled, "They proclaimed a feast in her honor and she and Gourry have been eating pretty well ever since."

"Naga softly chuckled, that's the Lina I know and lo..." she trailed off before she said it out loud, afraid of what might happen if she said anything.

Fillia did catch it and blushed softly, but she smiled brightly, "Its really good to have such friends who will go to the ends of the earth to save you."

Sylphiel saw Fillia's blush and caught on, but simply agreed, "Yes, good friends are so important in our lives, we can't seem to live without them!"

"You should eat too." Fillia offered, "I'm sure you're famished!"

"Can you stand?" Sylphiel asked.

"I think I can," Naga frowned, then she slowly tried her legs, lowering them to the floor where a pair of silk slippers had already been placed, and with a hand being steadied by each girl, Naga shakily rose to her feet and took a few cautious steps.

As she left the side of the bed, her hair followed her.

Not having been cut in over two years, it now dragged the ground behind her.

"Huh?" she turned her head to look back, "Wow!" she said marveling at her hair, "I never knew!"

"Knew what?" Fillia asked.

"I never knew my hair grew so much while I was in that dungeon!" she said softly but in astonishment.

"Do you want it cut?" Sylphiel asked.

"No..." Naga replied, "No...I think its a badge of honor now." looking forward and smiling softly, "I've become a woman now. I think I shall live as a woman, and no longer act like a spoiled little princess who didn't get her way."

With that, the three of them departed from the bedroom in the direction of the banquet hall for a greatly needed breakfast!

**Ep 13, Chapter 3**

The citizens of New Xoanna had recovered from the hypnotic drug and were about the task of helping rebuild the castle which Theolis's minions had so carefully sabotaged with magical bombs in an attempt to kill their queen.

Naga, who wore her hair in an elaborate woven pattern, and donned a beautiful gown custom tailored for her, was given an official apology and awarded the sum of twenty thousand gold pieces as reparations for the years of suffering she had endured, as well as rewarding Lina, Luna, Fillia, Gourry and Sylphiel with five thousand gold pieces each for saving their lives and preserving their country by not blowing it up in another dragon slave.

At a ceremony in their honor, the queen and king, dressed in finery, pronounced them all heroes and wished them well in their future lives.

After the ceremony however, Naga asked that they put the gown in a bag and restore to her her mother's original leather outfit.

The task was actually taken up, of all people, and to Naga's surprise by Lina herself, because she felt that it was in honor to Naga's late mother to keep the costume preserved. This brought tears of gratitude and happiness to her eyes.

Naga put her hair up in a most peculiar manner: having it so long it dragged the ground simply would never do, but she didn't wish to have a fancy hair style while she traveled, so upon some deliberation, she tied it into a gallows noose.

Lina and Luna both gave her a big thumbs-up on the design.

As they departed the city, they continued on their way to find Xelloss and the cure for the mysterious curse plague called "Deathwind."

They walked away from the city and back into the forest aimed toward the coastline, when Luna, knowing that Xelloss would be some place not far from them watching them, decided it was time to put her plan into action.

"Well people," Luna declared, "Now we have to get to the Claire Bible, so I think what we should do is-" and she bent close and whispered so that nobody far away would hear.

As she suspected, Xelloss could not resist and tried to listen in. Sensing the Mazoku's evil presence, she and Lina erupted into a joyful and rousing chorus of "Life Is Wonderful" which, to her surprise, Naga happened to know the words to as well.

As a heavy thud marked his landing, the group slowly walked around him while Naga, Lina and Luna continued singing at the top of their lungs in harmony.

Drawing near, Luna detached Einlanzer from her charm necklace and stabbed it back into his shoulder like before and yanked him up off the ground, never breaking from her joyful caroling.

"Stop! Please stop!" he pleaded, "What do you want from me this time!?"

"I think you already know what we want" Luna said, then resumed singing with the other two, and after a while the simple words were learned by Fillia, Gourry and Sylphiel, so that all six adventurers were singing it while Einlanzer continued to sizzle in his shoulder.

"I can't tell you that!" he protested, "Its forbidden!"

"By whom?" Luna asked, then resumed singing.

"By her majesty Greater Beast Zelas-Metallium"

"We don't serve monsters you sack of orc turds, so speak up!" Luna twisted the sword while resuming her singing...

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!" he gasped, "Ahhhhhhhh- Okayyyyyyyyy! I'll take you there!" he screamed, "But I won't have enough power to take all of you because you're draining me of too much energy!"

"I doubt that!" Luna growled, but she glanced around at the others and nodded, "Everybody huddle close and hang on to each other!"

With that, they all vanished in a flash.

**Ep 13, Chapter 4**

On the mist shrouded limestone and gravel shore of Wolf Pack Island, the adventurers materialized with a flash.

"Ok," Luna growled, "Where are we?"

"Why..." Xelloss nervously chuckled, grimacing in pain, "We're on our way to the Claire Bible like you asked!"

"We're on Wolf Pack Island." Fillia said as she looked around with a look of dread, "I know of this place."

"Then continue on..." she instructed Xelloss, "Take us the rest of the way."

"We have to walk from here..." he said, "Its impossible to teleport through the barriers placed here by her majesty Greater Beast Zelas-Metallium"

"Then point and I'll carry you, because you know by now, I'm NOT letting go until I get what I want."

"Oh," he replied glumly, "I can walk," he offered, "If you can walk sideways," not wanting to be held any closer by a human, as the Mazoku were as equally repulsed by humans as humans were by the Mazoku.

"Then get to side stepping!" Luna insisted, clamping firmly onto his arm and twisting the blade again for emphasis.

"Owwwwwww!" he nearly stumbled, "Okay! Okay!"

From there, they walked up the dull gray beach of limestone pebbles toward the mist shrouded inland, each step of gravel crunching softly under their feet.

After entering the dense jungle forest, the air from the ocean was overcome by the oppressive humidity and the heat was dreadful.

The air was cloying and everybody was sweating in a matter of minutes.

After several hours of trudging up hill, they broke through the mist and reached a plateau which overlooked a continuous flat expanse of white to the horizon. The sun however, shone at full strength, which offset the reduced humidity quite a bit.

In the middle of the plateau was another peak, which from here appeared to be a volcano.

As they crossed the plateau, drawing toward the shaded side of the steep central peak, it was a little cooler, and there was a little breeze coming down off the mountain, which helped alleviate some of their discomfort.

As the mountain loomed closer, a cavern became visible, and it was apparent they would be entering the mountain via this cavern.

Lina and Sylphiel summoned light spells to illuminate their way into the dark tunnel in the stone.

After what seemed like many more hours of walking, the tunnel opened up into a vast internal cavern. The space within this cavern was difficult to estimate however because it was crowded with many stalagmites and stalactites, making the floor and ceiling indeterminate.

"Ok," Luna demanded, "Now where?"

"Here is where we jump." Xelloss replied.

"Jump?" Luna demanded.

"Why, yes!" he replied, "The Claire Bible is through an invisible portal below us and its called 'The Leap of Faith'!"

"Well," Luna said to him, "I'm immortal, so it won't hurt me," then she turned to the others, "But the rest of you wait and see what happens to me before you do anything,"

"Right!" Lina agreed.

Everybody chorused agreement.

As Luna leapt, shoving Xelloss with her, she fell almost to the stones below, but then the pair suddenly vanished.

"I'll go next." Lina said, "Just in case it was a teleport spell." and then she called out "Ray wing!" and slowly descended until she too vanished in the same place.

"It must be a portal," Fillia declared, and flew down after Lina, then the others followed one by one, Sylphiel being last as she held up the light spell.

As Sylphiel vanished into the portal, the cavern suddenly went black.


	14. Episode 14

**Episode 14**

"**Wolf Pack Island?! Answers To Questions and the Black Lotus!"**

As Luna and Xelloss 'landed' in the labyrinth, she took a quick look around to see what might be coming at her from any sides and what she might have to react to. Taking a cautious step away from where the landed, she looked upwards.

A few seconds later, Lina came through right where she had come through.

"Don't go anywhere until we're all through, or somebody could be lost in here for eternity!" Lina said quickly.

"I had no intentions of it." Luna replied.

"I'm glad to hear that!" Lina chimed.

Seconds later, in rapid succession, each of the others fell through, and Lina pulled them all toward Luna to keep them from landing on each other or wandering off any place.

"Ok." Lina declared confidently, "We're all in here, now lead the way to the Claire Bible."

"When do I get to go?" Xelloss complained.

"When I say you do you sack of orc turds!" Luna growled, extracting another cry of pain from the Mazoku by twisting the blade again, "Now get going!"

Lina had everybody link up holding hands behind Fillia and she held onto Luna's skirt, seeing as she wanted to be first in line.

"Ok," Lina shrugged, "That works fine for me!" but she then got a quizzical look when Naga wanted to take her hand in the line. Still, however, she did take it, then Sylphiel's, followed by Gourry

Some time later, and it was impossible to tell how long, could have been a heartbeat or an hour, time was impossible to count in this pocket dimension, the party arrived at the bible, and Lina had to let go of everybody to enter the bible proper.

Slipping through the barrier, she was enveloped in golden light, which elicited 'ooh's' and 'ahh's' from Fillia, Gourry and Sylphiel.

Once inside, surrounded by light, she thought the word "Deathwind."

The voice of Ceiphied responded: "Deathwind is an ancient weapon crafted by Lord Ruby Eyes in an attempt to destroy the Shinzoku race which was discovered too early to be effective.

"The weapon consisted of a very minute crystal of a very rare ethereal substance which when engraved with the proper sets of runes behaved as a minute collector of magical and life force energy. In fact, ultimately, all forms of energy."

(A very small, violet colored crystalline form appeared in the shape of one larger sphere and two smaller spheres offset by about ninety degrees, so that at some angles it would look like a head with two ears, or a water molecule.)

"The crystal was designed to absorb energy at an imperceptible rate, until it had enough to create a copy of its self from this energy.

"Over time, it was meant to slowly draw the energy from the Mazoku away until it would be too late for them to act, and drain them out of existence.

"The fatal flaw in the design was that the weapon was far to efficient and acted too rapidly, making its self evident before it could spread," (an image of a few small dots replicating rapidly until they filled out an area before her appeared to illustrate rapid reproduction) "and Ceiphied developed a means to neutralize the weapon by means of "_The Dust of Isolation_" which puts a thin layer of even finer crystals on the surface of the original weaponized crystals so that no new energy can reach them.

(a single crystal hovered in front of Lina while very small black particles swept into the image and began lodging into the grooves created by the myriads of complex small runes engraved into the initial crystal)

"This in effect, neutralizes the weaponized crystal, so long as the dust is kept in continuous contact, under pressure, in a magically sealed vessel.

"If the dust is vented, it will dissipate too much to be effective, and the weapon will automatically resume activity. (a moving image showed the dust dissipating in a manner similar to gray smoke or fog.)

"The talismans of sealing were intentionally written in Mazokese to make their presence more difficult to detect by the Mazoku themselves. (an image of the talismans appeared, slowly rotating on its axis allowing full view of both sides)

"Had they been they would have been easily detected and neutralized.

"Furthermore, with no safe magical realms to place the weapon, the only neutral area was in the human realm," (a map of Zephilia appeared, only it was different, allowing for time that would have passed over the thousands of years since its cartography) "-and a subsequent series of barriers were placed around it," (a pyramidal shaped set of white lines appeared over the map, although it was then removed again) "-although those barriers failed in recent times and have become unable to prevent the spread of the weapon.

"As of this moment, the weapon has spread to the following regions." (a map showed in layers of intensity, the spread of the weaponized crystals across the edge of Zephilia and outward north toward the sea, and east toward the Desert of Destruction.

"Its progress will remain unchecked as long as nobody works to collect it back. This will require the special holy spell "Gathering Of The Wayward Flock" This can only be performed by a holy priest or priestess.

"There must be a receptacle to place it into, and there must be talismans on hand to seal it with as well. These must be crafted of white willow branches of the first year, boiled and beaten into their fine fibers, and the letters must be written in "The Dust of Isolation" mixed with the sap of the black lotus flower which only grows in the eastern jungle regions of Wolf Pack Island.

"This island is currently home of Greater Beast Metallium and she will not give them up willingly. The first time this type of warding talisman was created, the island was uninhabited.

"The Dust of Isolation must be made from the finest dust of the thibix orthinux gem which is found in the burning desert pits in the Desert of Destruction. This dust must be handled only by holy hands, consecrated in the water of the third fountain of Elmash Vale.

"The dust must then be placed into the receptacle for the Deathwind and held there while the Deathwind is added to it. Only then can it be sealed and remain safe."

"Well," Lina said, "That sure was a mouthful!" then she added, "Well thanks for the tip! I'll be checking back in on you from time to time!"

With that, she backed out of the Claire bible and said, "Ceiphied says we have to use a holy spell called "The Gathering Of The Wayward Flock." turning to the dragoness she said, "Fillia, this next part is for you."

**Ep 14, Chapter 2**

Fillia stepped into the bible and asked, "Please tell me about the 'Gathering Of The Wayward Flock' spell?"

Instead of human words however, growls and rumblings came forth which were dragonese and the images flashed at speeds no human mind could comprehend.

Other scenes and images appeared, far too many for the common human mind to gather.

After all of this, the booming celestial voice asked in human, "Is there something else you wanted to ask me?"

"I wanted to ask you the meaning of the dreams," Fillia replied in shy reverence, "They trouble me, they confuse me, but they they give me hope, and I wish to understand."

"When the time for you to know the answer is at hand dear child," the voice took on a more kindly tone, "All that which you need to know shall be revealed to you."

"But..." her eyes quavered as if on the verge of tears at this disappointing answer.

"Go your way for now, child." I will continue to reveal to you the meaning as you are ready to embrace it."

"Yes High Lord Ceiphied!" she bowed, still disappointed, yet reverently overjoyed to actually speak with the god which was over the late Dragon King, "My unending worship to you forever!"

"Here, little one..." the voice spoke once more, "A gift. Tell no one save the special one of this."

"Yes Lord Ceiphied?" she asked.

"Show forth the golden rose." the voice commanded softly.

"Y-yes my lord!" she complied sheepishly with a deep blush.

Light began to fill the air around Fillia and sparkles of all colors of the rainbow in great intensity showered down, and began collecting on the golden rose, which then began glowing until it was as brilliant as looking into the sun in its strength.

"Now, dear child," the voice declared, "All is set, you have my direct blessings on the event."

"The event?" she wondered.

"Go now, and take care of the special one, for they are the one whom I have specially chosen for you from before they were born."

"Yes my Lord Ceiphied!" she bowed, even more confused than before, "I shall do all in my power!" and even without her actually taking the steps to leave the bible, she found herself outside of it, startled and confused.

She stood up from the kneeling position as soon as she was aware that she was with the others, and pulled her tail in quickly, hoping that nobody had noticed, "I think I have everything I need from here now."

"I say we get out of here then." Luna decided, "Unless anybody else has any other questions?"

"I do," Naga declared, then stepped into the bible.

When she stepped out, she had a very sad and troubled look on her face, but all she said was, "Okay, I'm ready now."

They all gathered to Luna and holding on to her and Xelloss traveled back to the portal and teleported back out.

**Ep 14, Chapter 3**

As they reappeared in the same tunnel they leapt from, Luna said to Xelloss, "Now..." and with a malicious grin, "Take me to your mother's flower garden."

"Uhhhh-heh-heh... Are you so sure you want to go there?"

"I'm sure what I'll do to you if you don't take us there" and she twisted Einlanzer full circle making a huge nasty smoking hole one could see all the way through.

Xelloss's knees buckled as he cried out in agony, but Luna's immense strength was more than enough to hold him by the arm which was pulling against the gaping hole until the pain made him stand to take the load off the injury.

"Give...me...time...to...rest..." he panted, face screwed up into a grimace.

"I'll give you to the count of three before I begin cutting pieces off you is what I'LL give you, you worthless sack of orc turds!" she growled, then to the party, "Gather round, we're moving again."

Everybody huddled close and vanished from the cavern tunnel to appear in a thick green jungle once again, with the hot steam of the air suddenly quite oppressive upon them.

"Wow its so hot here!" Lina exclaimed.

"Shhh!" Luna said, "We're here for only one item and we need to get it and get out of here!"

"Fillia!" Luna whispered intensely, "Can you and Sylphiel recognize a black lotus if you see one?"

"I can," Fillia replied, "I had to know herbs of historical value as a priestess."

"The same is true for me." Sylphiel responded, "Finding them however will not be the big problem." she concluded.

"I and the others will defend you while you collect them." Luna ordered, "You two just get as many as you can and get back to the mainland."

"How will you get back?" Fillia worried.

"I'll find a way to signal you when we are clear." Luna replied, "You get those flowers and we'll cover -"

"Too late..." Xelloss said as a monstrous scream filled the air.

"Everybody!" Luna shouted, "Cover them!"

Flashes of light screamed down through the heavy growth, blasting the trees and soil into the air with flames licking up the ground and surrounding foliage.

Lina and Naga returned volleys of flare arrows, freeze arrows, fireballs while Gourry blocked blasts away from Sylphiel with Blast Blade and Luna used Xelloss and her self as shields over Fillia.

Darting to and fro, Fillia and Luna bend down to pluck the painfully small flowers, and each one they pluck released a small swirling cloud of magical force into the air.

This magical force was the prime source of raw magical power which was used to create the warding talismans so long ago, back when they were found every place.

After the war of the Monster's Fall however, since both sides had so madly scrambled to collect power, they nearly caused the extinction of the fragile plant.

Now, this last and only place in the world where they grew was being guarded fiercely and jealously by the Greater Beast Zelas Metallium and the party was raiding that last living source of them for reasons she was unaware of and wanted desperately to know!

As the battle raged, Xelloss was hit repeatedly by blasts from his maker which led to him whimpering "mother" repeatedly.

Luna would just chuckle because she knew how the Mazoku were, how they would use each other for their own personal benefit without hesitation if the situation called for it. "Don't you just love being a Mazoku now?" she laughed, "You little sack of orc turds!"

Fillia called aloud, "One Hundred!"

Luna then called out, "Party! Rally on me!"

"Come on Syl!" Gourry shouted, blocking screaming blue-white bolts of dazzling energy so that they went careening of into nearby trees and into the sky with a whining sizzle and sparks flying off of Blast Blade.

The pair of them gradually worked their way back to Luna and Fillia's position, while Naga and Lina fired off blasts as fast as they could spit out the words, not to destroy Zelas but just to throw off her aim at their fellow party members.

"Let us off in New Xoanna and I'll let you go." Luna informed Xelloss, "Until the NEXT time I happen to find that your worthless carcass comes in handy..." with a malevolent chuckle.

As they grouped together and vanished, Greater Beast Zelas Metallium screamed in primal fury, but then moments later, transformed into her human shape, fluffed her hair as if nothing had happened, and strode casually through the remaining forest to see how many black lotus remained.

**Ep 14, Chapter 4**

"You..." Xelloss gasped, pale, sweating and panting, "You said you would let me go..."

"Sure orc turd." she replied callously and she thrust him to the ground where he lay while holding his hand over the large hole in his shoulder as she walked away, "Come on people," she said over her shoulder, "We still have work to do."

"But first," Lina shouted, "I'm hungry! Lets eat!"

"Yeah!" Gourry seconded, "I'm all for that!"

The look on Queen Martina's face when they showed up at the palace was one of fretful anticipation. "You're going to eat my cupboards bare!" she said woefully.

"Nah we won't!" Lina said casually, "We just need to fuel up before we head off to the Desert of Destruction!"

"The Desert of Destruction?!" everybody chorused at once.

"I couldn't tell you before because Xelloss was listening in!" she defended her previous withholding of information, "But now that he's off nursing his wounds, I have just a little bit of time to tell you about everything."

"Uhhh..." Gourry began, "Why would he care if we're trying to stop a plague?" as if there was no possible reason it would mean anything to Xelloss.

Bashing him over the head again, Lina shouted, "Gourry! You IDIOT!" she screamed at him, "Why are you ALWAYS the ONLY one who doesn't get it?!"

Sylphiel rushed over to him and propped him up and to everyone's amazement, raised her voice,"Lina Inverse!" she scolder her loudly, "That is enough!"

Everyone was so shocked, even Gourry said, "It-it's o-"

"No! It is NOT okay and I will no longer stand by and allow you to abuse him like this! He has been loyal and faithful to you for all these years and I have no idea why, but YOU seem to not even care one whit if he lives or dies!"

"Sure I do!" Lina replied, "But he is such an IDIOT you GOTTA bash his head to get his attention!"

"I never do!" Sylphiel shouted back, "And I've known him a lot longer than you have!"

"Well then FINE!" she shouted, back, "YOU take the time to explain life to him then!" then looking over at Naga to her immediate left, who had found wine and was beginning to get rather flush, "Naga here never has to have things explained to HER...!"

Naga regarded Lina's words with a dreamy, but almost cross-eyed look as she slowly wobbled in her seat, "Ahhhh luuuhv yooooooo" and reached over and planted a big firm juicy kiss on Lina whose eyes bulged in realization, then she slumped back into her seat and began snoring.

Everyone blushed and the conversation ceased completely as nobody could think of anything to say after that.

Lina simply resumed eating, as did Gourry, after climbing back into his chair, although he ate a lot slower and seemed to for once in his life actually be thinking about something.

Sylphiel simply sat beside him and rubbed his shoulder and fretted quietly.

Luna excused herself and walked out of the dining hall toward a large balcony to look into the night sky, and Fillia quietly followed.

"Its quite the motley crew we have amassed." Luna said softly as she looked up at the stars.

"Yes it is Miss Luna," Fillia agreed softly, looking more at Luna than at the stars, "Luna?" she began impulsively.

"Hmmm?" Luna asked without looking down, but reflexively reaching for Fillia's hand without realizing it.

"Are there other Inverses in this land?"

"I don't know," Luna replied, "Why do you ask?"

"I just wondered because..." she trailed off, blushing.

Luna looked down at her, "Because?" seeing the blush.

"Well, ummm... " she faltered and found she could not make herself say the whole truth of what the cause was, "Just...because."

Luna felt affronted because she had a sneaking suspicion that Fillia was implying she sought after a man, and yet she could not actually tell Fillia this, so, in a somewhat disingenuous manner, she replied, "Oh. Well, whatever reason it is, I'm sorry that I don't know any others besides my self, my parents and Lina."

"Then it must be you." Fillia concluded.

This surprised Luna immensely, "Me?!" she recoiled slightly, "For what?"

"Oh..." Fillia wanted to say, but didn't want to say it in a way that would come as any more of a shock than it seemed to already be coming out as at the moment, "Its just..." she fumbled.

"Just?" Luna leaned near her, which made her dark eyes seem to drill into Fillia's soul.

"Its-just-a-prohpec-I-mean-a-silly-permonition-thingy-I thought-I-may-have-accidentally-had!" she blurted out then looked shocked at herself for saying it that way.

Luna got chills, "A prophecy...?" she almost whispered, and just then she gasped as an extremely large shooting star crossed the sky, leaving an amazing long tail.

She put her arm around Fillia who did not resist as they stood there gazing at the stars long into the night.


	15. Episode 15

**Episode 15**

"**A Day's Vacation! Lets Go On A Date!"**

Luna awoke to an even larger tent in her bedsheets the following morning, but thankfully, she had a room to her self. "Oh no..." she sighed in dread, "I don't know what I'm going to do if this THING keeps getting BIGGER!

Fillia awoke from a fitful sleep, quite exhausted. "Oh..." she groaned, "So many confusing dreams!"

Lina woke up ready to roll as usual, and next to her in the bed was Naga still in her day wear, except for the ridiculous shoulder spikes, snoring loudly. "Come on Naga," Lina nudged her, eliciting a groan of agony from a throbbing hangover, "We gotta go..." she dutifully cast a healing spell on Naga so she wouldn't have to carry her.

Gourry woke up and went about his normal morning routine of combing his hair, checking his gear and finding the first food he could get.

Sylphiel woke gently and got dressed knowing she would find Gourry where food could be found.

The party all made their way to the royal dining hall and did their best to manage in their own ways.

After this, Lina went to Martina and asked her where a good herbalist could be found.

"There is one just a little way outside of the city," she mentioned, east along the main road toward Seyruun," she replied, "And while you are going that way," she added, "Might you take this letter and money to a certain hot springs resort there not too far away?"

"Ok," Lina agreed, "Thanks a lot," she waved, "Be seeing ya soon!" and she rejoined the party who departed for the herbalist's shop.

At the herbalist's shop, they found out that it would take at least a full day, if not two, to do the work requested.

"A full day with nothing to do?" Lina said, looking at the party.

"Well," Gourry replied, "That doesn't sound like such a terrible thing for a change..."

"I hate to say it," Fillia agreed, "But I didn't sleep very well and I'm not feeling too rested."

"There's this little hot springs resort I was asked to go pay a visit to for Martina," Lina suggested, "Why not go there and hang out all day being pampered?"

"That sounds great to me!" Naga replied with an alarming level of enthusiasm.

Luna was about to turn down the idea, but then she got the image of Fillia in a white towel with her tail behind her and replied, "That does sound like a good idea now that you mention it..." rubbing her chin trying to play it cool and to hide her excitement at the idea.

"Well I can't go in there with all you girls," Gourry said, "So I think I'll just hang around that river down there." pointing to the Elimander river which wandered generally the direction they would be heading toward the desert, and was not a great distance from where they stood presently.

"I think I shall accompany Gourry dear." Sylphiel said in her usual soft spoken voice.

Fillia asked, "What is a hot spring resort?"

"Man Fillia!" Lina shouted, "Are you going to have FUN!"

**Ep 15, Chapter 2**

Gourry and Sylphiel walked along the river just gazing at the clouds, flowers, fish, and generally nature as they talked.

"So what have you been doing all this time Gourry dear?"

"Oh," he slowly replied, "Following Lina from one adventure to another," he shrugged.

"Do you enjoy it?" she asked him.

"Some times," he replied, "But some times its a drag." with a sigh, he stooped, picked up a rock and skipped it across the clear calm water, "Some times I think she really hates me, and some times, I just don't know."

"Gourry dear may I ask why you still follow Miss Lina around. Even though she is always so mean to you?" She asks him in her soft meek voice. While a sad look could be seen upon her face.

"Truthfully Syl," he paused and breathed deeply, steeling himself, "I have started to wonder that myself.

"I mean at first it was because of my sense of honor that kept me following her. Then I started to get feelings for her."

"But lately I don't know. I mean I know I am pretty stupid and the only reason she even tolerated me was because of the Sword of Light, and that only because she wanted it. But since I gave it back to the Overworlder, I get the feeling that I am no longer wanted around.

"She has been getting more and more violent towards me as of late.

"I am a tough guy but still there is only so much abuse a man is willing to take before even his honor demands he leave. I feel my time in Lina's company is getting to a point that I am about to say forget this."

"Oh Gourry dear I didn't know it was quite that bad. I just..." Sylphiel began.

"No Syl," He cut her off, "Don't say it. Lets not dwell on the negative. I just want to settle down and have a family. I want to go back to Elemekia and see my family. I haven't seen or heard from them in almost 7 years.

"I was a Mercenary for two years before I met Lina and I don't even know if any of my family has died or are still alive! Honestly I am getting to a point where I don't want to travel anymore.

"I wish Lina was more like you. You're so sweet and gentle and an awesome cook...and well...I just know if Lina was more like you I would be able to be happy." a forlorn look creased his eyebrows, "But I know that won't happen." taking in a sharp breath filled with exasperation, "Hell I am not even needed anymore now that Lina's sister Luna is here! I can tell by just watching Luna with the way she moves and fights she could stomp a mud hole in me every time." with that, he resumed shuffling, hands in pockets.

"Oh Gourry dear I know how you feel!" Sylphiel responded, "I myself want a family and to settle down."

"I know I may not be the super sorceress that Lina is but I love you Gourry dear!" she turned and took hold of his hand, "I just wish you could see that!"

"It isn't hero worship that I have for you, it is honest to Gods love! But by the time I saw you again after all those years we had been apart you was following Lina around like a lost puppy. It hurt me to watch how she beat on you and talked to you like trash!"

"I-I-I-I just wish you could open your eyes and see that I would never hurt you and would never beat on you or call you bad names. Please at least consider me and my feelings for you." She said as she blushed a dark red at having said all of that. Yet as tears started to build in her eyes and she was about to run she felt strong powerful arms wrap around her and pull her tightly to the cerulean blue chest plate and she heard the soft voice of Gourry speak.

"Syl I am sorry that I never noticed it before I just hope you can forgive me for being such an idiot all this time. I was so wrapped up in my duty to protect Lina that I never saw what my actions did to you. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me." As these words are said Sylphiel feels wet droplets fall down upon her face and when she looks up she is shocked to find that Gourry is crying yet the most shocking thing of all comes in the form of their lips meeting as she raised her face to look at him and yet instead of flinching Gourry actually continued to kiss her as his eyes closed.

A few moments later they broke for air, walked over to the river's edge and sat down holding each other in the others arms. A slight smile showed on both faces as they agreed to give each other the chance to find true happiness in each others hearts.

**Ep 15, Chapter 3**

The four girls who made it to the hot spring resort began the day all hanging out as a group, even though Fillia was not thrilled with the idea of bathing in front of others.

"If its too much for you," Luna offered, "You can go in with a towel on!"

"But-but-but I'll look strange!" she protested.

"Its okay!" Luna insisted softly, "In fact, I'll wear a towel too!" she put on a bright sunny smile. "_And THIS way I don't have to worry about IT popping up on me all of a sudden!_" she thought to herself.

"You'd do that for me?" Fillia asked, wide eyed.

"Of course I would!" she beamed, "I'd do ANYTHING for you!" then again to herself, "_As long as Ceiphied permits it._.."

"You would?" eyes even wider.

"Well..." she smiled sheepishly, "I THINK so..." then with a shrug, "I suppose I would have to find out when you asked me!"

"Oh" Fillia looked down at those words, pondering what had all just been said, replaying it back in her mind, "I shall keep that in mind!" she said in a rather childlike manner.

As they entered the pool where Naga and Lina were in skimpy bathing suits already relaxing, Fillia's tail swished back and forth behind her and Luna had to be careful not to step on it!

As Fillia stepped into the pool, her tail floated and followed at the waterline behind her while Luna followed the tail!

"Hey guys!" Lina shouted, "What took you so long!?"

"Just choosing the right color towel" Luna replied in mild mannered sarcasm.

"But they're all the same color-!" she began then realized she'd been had by her sister once again, "Whatever..."

Naga reflexively giggled, and Lina splashed her, and she squealed and splashed back, making a big ruckus which made Fillia uncomfortable.

Fillia turned to Luna with a slightly sad look on her face and Luna gave a knowing look in return, and motioned toward the other side of the pool where the natural rock formations created a bit of privacy for the pair.

"They are so wild and rambunctious!" Fillia commented in discomfort.

"Yes," Luna sighed, "They're pretty much perfect for each other."

"They look like they've known each other a long time."

"I honestly don't know how long they've known each other." Luna looked up thoughtfully at the clouds as they both gently settled in up to their chins, "She left home when she was twelve, and this is the first time we have been near each other since, so I can't tell you how long they were together before the guy showed up."

"It seems like we've known each other a long time," Fillia purred, stirring the water before them with her tail's tip, "It seems like a lifetime."

"Wow," Luna replied, "That's..." a slight tear came to her eye, "That's really, really very...ummmm...deep." she said trying to keep her cool and calm composure.

"Deep?" Fillia looked up at her confused.

"Its..." she took a long breath and blew it out slowly, "That's a very intense thought for me...coming...from you...that is." she was now both nervous and emotional!

"I hope I didn't say anything wrong," Fillia continued looking at her but with concern.

"Oh, no," Luna chuckled, wiping the tear from her eye, "Nothing wrong at all in fact!"

"I'm glad," Fillia responded then lay her head on Luna's shoulder and took Luna's left hand into hers.

"M-m-me too." Luna responded, as now both their hands were on her lap and this was compounding the presence of the twirling tail which peeked up just above the waterline! "_Ohhhhhhhhh!_" she groaned to herself, "_What am I going to do now?!_" and she grit her teeth trying to think of something but nothing was coming to mind.

"I think I want a cottage on that hilltop." Fillia said unexpectedly.

"Huh?" Luna asked snapping back from mental chaos, "The hill where you had last seen Lina and where we picked up their trail?" she instantly knew the place, it was the place in her dreams!

"Yes," she turned her eyes up toward Luna, "That one." looking out at the rice paper walls of the resort, she continued, "A small cottage, right on the edge of the cliff where our-"

"Our?" Luna looked at her getting chills."

Looking back at the larger girl, "-Chil..dren..." Fillia managed to squeeze out before blushing furiously, "I-I-I-I do-do-don't know what-"

"Our children..." Luna was in somewhat of a daze, "You had the same dream too!" she whispered, chills going down her spine despite the hot water...

**Ep 15, Chapter 4**

Naga and Lina were so busy splashing each other like little children they totally forgot about Luna and Fillia.

After a while, Naga was chasing Lina and she stumbled on an uneven spot on the natural stone bottom and fell face first in.

As Lina spun to see what had stopped the chase, Naga lunged from below and caught her by a foot and pulled her under.

As Lina struggled to regain her footing, Naga who was an expert swimmer in a flash was up on top of the younger girl and wrapped her arms around the red haired maiden who was struggling to gain control of her situation, and kissed her deeply and forcefully.

"_What is she doing?_" Lina asked herself in surprise bordering on panic, then, feeling the older girl's soft lips, and embrace, "_Why does this feel so good...?_" her mind wondered, as if losing consciousness, "_Somehow this feels so right...why? What is happening...?_" the thoughts drifted lazily in her mind almost without conviction.

Lina went from struggling for her footing, to struggling against the surprise kiss, to accepting it.

Naga with her better developed lungs shared her air with the younger girl, allowing her more time to enjoy this private kiss.

"_She's giving me her air to breathe_..." Lina mused in a daze, "_Is this love?_" her mind swirled the thoughts around almost carelessly as if in a dream.

After what seemed an eternity, Naga released Lina from the kiss and propelled her upward the few inches to fresh air while slipping away in case Lina took actions of retribution on her.

Instead, Lina just stood there in virtual shock, panting, gasping for air, sputtering water from her face and nose, and trembling.

After a minute without any explosions, Naga sheepishly peered up out of the water at the redhead.

Lina was not looking at Naga, she was looking into her self! Naga had never seen this expression on the younger girl's face and she remained motionless watching.

"_What just happened?_" Lina pondered to herself, "_What JUST happened?_"

Finally looking up and around, seeing Naga and meeting eyes with her, "_Am I.._.?" she wondered to herself, "_Did I? Can I?_" she was at loss for the words to ask even her own self what was racing through her mind at this moment.

A dinner bell broke everyone's reverie and all four girls went inside to eat.


	16. Episode 16

**Episode 16**

"**Every Day Date? Everybody Gets A Surprise On Their Day Off! "**

As the four hungry girls ate, the management worried that they would run out of food.

Naga also began putting away all their wine, by list.

"Don't worry mister,"Lina said, "I have plenty of money to pay for it! Just keep bringin' it!

They managed to eat everything in the storage and the owner sent runners to the market to gather more.

As the runners were hurrying up the road from the market just around dusk, Gourry and Sylphiel who had been waiting outside the herbalist's shop saw them coming and asked where they were headed with all the food in such a rush.

"We have a very hungry client at the hot springs resort!" he shouted over his shoulder while he ran.

"Hot springs resort?" Gourry frowned.

"That must be Lina." Sylphiel replied.

"Yeah!" he responded, "No doubt!"

"I suppose we should get something to eat soon," she ventured.

"Yeah," he agreed, "I am getting kinda hungry. We should see if they've left anything for us to eat."

"Then we better hurry," Sylphiel admonished.

They took to running, but they had trouble running in the dark and could not run steadily, so Sylphiel called forth, "Lighting!" and a bluish white orb appeared over her hand which allowed them to run more quickly.

Unfortunately, however, when they got there, since they had no reservations, they had to sign all the paperwork and pay the minimum basic overnight guest fees, even though they did not spend the day part as well.

By the time they reached the dining hall, the only food in sight consisted of scraps in front of Luna and Fillia which Lina didn't have the nerve to snatch away from them for fear of her sister's retribution.

"What?" Gourry asked the table server, "ALL of that food you guys brought got eaten AND what was in your cupboards?"

"I'm terribly-" the headwaiter began apologetically.

"Oh waaaaaaaaa!" Lina cut him off, "Gourry, you know how to find food! You should have gotten here sooner! Its not MY fault you went off fishing or whatever and didn't even catch anything! It won't hurt you to skip a meal every now and then anyway!"

"That is so MEAN!" Sylphiel once again raised her voice, "How COULD you be so cold hearted to poor Gourry dear?"

Severely inebriated, Naga's head swiveled from one party to the other, following the conversation with bleary eyes, but all the time slowly reaching for Lina's arm, hand sliding across the table in the younger girl's direction.

"Hey!" she barked at Sylphiel, "Don't come down on me if he's being irresponsible! I'm not his wife that I gotta cook his dinner or anything! I look out for me and me only! Got it sister?"

"Ummmm," Fillia offered, very uncomfortable with the situation, "Its not much, but I couldn't complete my dinner, so if you would like..."

Naga smiled a silly smile as she looked at the paltry amount that remained of the goose dinner which Fillia had grown so fond of in recent days.

"And mine too." Luna offered, both in compassion but also because she wanted to please Fillia by showing generosity, which was as much of an alien idea for her as it was for Lina.

"Ummmm..." Gourry hesitated, because as a gentleman, eating after a lady seemed awkward, "Are you sure?"

Naga swayed back and forth as if trying to focus on Gourry, not sure if she wanted to laugh or throw up.

"Sure." Luna replied, "Being generous for a change would do me some good personally."

Lina glared at them but did not say anything to either Luna or Fillia.

Naga reached over almost as if pouncing on Lina, dragging them both to the floor in a drunken kiss.

"Owww! Hey!" Lina cried, feet showing above the table, whatever else she was going to say was muffled by Naga's lips, but she never bothered to push her away.

**Ep 16, Chapter 2**

Fillia and Luna politely excused themselves at that moment, both because they were making place for Gourry and Sylphiel, as well as it was simply a convenient moment in the events to 'make a break for it' so to speak.

As Gourry and Sylphiel sat down to eat, the chairs on the other side of the table rustled around and grunting sounds persisted until Gourry just stopped chewing and set down his fork looking very very glum and embarrassed at the same time, "Gods!" he muttered, burying his forehead into his palms, "I have never been so humiliated in my life and now I have to sit here and listen to it!"

"Gourry dear," Sylphiel tried to comfort him, "Please, just don't let this get to you..."

"I'm trying Syl!" he pleaded desperately, "But this...this is..." he let out a sigh, "I'm really not hungry any more." he pushed himself away from the table, "I'm going out to get some fresh air. It smells like a distillery in here."

As he wandered off down the hallway toward the guest quarters, he had to take the pathway that went along the garden and he heard murmuring from a white marble bench just off the path which he was passing by, and there to his surprise, Fillia was leaned over on Luna's shoulder, their hands clasped on her lap.

"...would be the best place." he caught the trailing of Luna's huskier more mature voice, "I think we should see how much they want for that entire run of the sea shore from where the town ends to the next water way east."

"That would be beautiful!" Fillia's softer more delicate voice purred, "Plenty of room for a family."

"_Whaaaat?_" he thought to himself, "_A family? Those two?_" stopping where he stood, listening in even though it was not the gentlemanly thing to do, "_How are those two going to raise a family?_"

"I know just how the house should look too!" Fillia said in excitement.

"I think I do too!" Luna replied remembering the dreams of the bedroom, which led to a reflexive shudder, "How well I know!"

"Gahhh!" Gourry muttered to himself, "This is pointless! All these girls are all of a sudden acting like...like...like I don't KNOW what!" as he turned back toward the dining hall, not wanting to pass by the two.

As he went back toward the hall, in the light of the evening lanterns, he passed by Lina and Naga.

Naga was giggling and Lina was blushing, but holding up the taller girl, not wanting to look at Gourry.

"Fine!" he growled inside himself, "BE that way!" and stalked back into the dining hall where Sylphiel had patiently waited for him and convinced the owner of the establishment to spare some of their own personal provisions and allow her to cook a meal for her beloved.

"Thank you so so so so much Syl," Gourry said seeing the modest but freshly cooked meal, "This means so much to me." a tear trickled from his eye as he sat down to dine.

**Ep 16, Chapter 3**

As Lina managed to get the large, giggling Naga into their room, and onto the bed, she waved off the alcohol odor and cast a breeze spell to ventilate the room.

Naga lay there giggling and tittering ceaselessly, almost to the level of annoyance of her maniacal laughter.

"Well," Lina said softly, "At least she's not still kissing me..." wiping the dark lipstick off her face in the mirror after casting a light spell.

"I wonder if they put some kind of poison in her some time ago?" she thought to herself, "I don't recall her every acting like this before."

Changing into her pajamas, she went to lay down, then remembered to pull the horrid shoulder spikes off Naga so neither of them would get injured.

Lifting her up, Lina found that Naga had gone limp except for the incessant giggling. "Come on!" she grumbled, tugging on the elusive buckles, "How do you GET these things OFF?" she tugged and prodded...

"With my teeth.." Naga giggled.

"Come on!" she said loudly and impatiently, "How do you REALLY get them off?"

"My teeth!" came the tittery reply, "Like this!" and she turned her head, baring her teeth toward the ungainly looking decoration, and with a little bite on the rim, and it popped right off with a quiet little 'snap.'

"Whoa!" Lina marveled, "Amazing!"

"Wanna try?" Naga giggled more, "My whole outfit comes off-"

"Noooo no-no-no-no!" Lina replied, "We're just worried about the spikes there..."

"Aweee..." Naga whined, "You're no fun!"

"What has gotten IN to you girl?" Lina asked, "You've been like this ever since you got back."

"I told you dear..." Naga purred, suddenly no longer giggling, "I LOVE you!"

"You said – WHAAAAAA?!" Lina eyes bulged, "You-you, youyouyouyou lu-lu-lu-lu-love me?"

"I've had a lot of time to think it over." Naga's voice became astonishingly sober, yet retained a level of smoothness and maturity she had never before expressed, "I really couldn't say it before because I was too immature and I didn't really know what love was."

"What are you saying?" Lina backed away alarmed, "Have you BEEN with-?!"

"Oh noooo!" Naga replied, "I'd NEVER do that!" then with the mirthful look reappearing on her face, "Not with anybody but youuuuuuuu..."

Lina turned pale then blushed all in one rapid move, "Wha-wha-what with me?"

"Oh..." Naga dawdled her finger on the bed in front of her, sitting up surprisingly well for having been so astonishingly drunk, "Surely you can use your imagination..." then developing a sly smile, "Or perhaps, I could show you...?"

"Um-um-um-um," she stammered some more, "Maybelaterhuh? I gotta get some sleep for the road in the morning!"

"Awweee..." Naga conceded despondently, "Okay..." then resumed her giggling a little longer while laying herself down on her pillow, then with a soft sigh, she slipped right into sleep.

Nervously regarding her long time friend and rival, Lina stood against the wall for several minutes regarding the situation, before she found herself uncontrollably yawning.

"Well, its the bed or the floor..." she said, then slipped into the bed beside the sleeping Naga who suddenly wrapped her arm over Lina.

"Naga..." she began, swiveling her head to look behind her.

Naga looked so peaceful and serene, almost angelic with a gentle smile on her lips.

This brought back a rush of memories of their past travels, some bad, some good.

"Either way," Lina sighed, "Its good to have you back." and with a snap of her fingers extinguished the magic light.

**Ep 16, Chapter 4**

After Lina and Naga had stumbled by, Luna and Fillia were quiet a while...

They looked at each other a few seconds, then they too began giggling.

"What a show that was!" Luna tittered, "All out on the floor like wild animals!" then she got up and said, "Hey...its quiet around here," looking around pulling Fillia up with her, "Lets go back to the pool for a while."

"Okay!" Fillia agreed heartily, "I just LOVE hot springs!" and she eagerly followed Luna back to the pool where they quickly changed into towels again.

Settling down in the pool, the flickering stars were the only light above on the far side where they had retreated to earlier, so they went there and sat down together.

"Do you think we will find the cure for this plague soon?" Fillia asked.

"We will eventually," Luna replied, "I can't go home if we don't and there won't BE a home if we don't..." she said measuredly.

"I hope we fix it all soon," the dragoness declared wistfully, "I'm tired of all these tragedies and calamities always threatening the end of the world..." and with a sigh, "I just want to have a normal, happy peaceful life"

"I do too." Luna said, wrapping her arm around Fillia, "I most certainly do too."

"Hey Luna," Fillia suddenly became a bit somber.

"Yes?" Luna asked

"When I said what I said earlier..." she began blushing, "About children...?"

"Ummmm..." Luna became nervous at this point, "Y-yes?"

"How do you think we would...ummm...you know," looking downward, "Have children?"

"Well," Luna felt her lips becoming quite dry, despite the abundance of steam in the air, "Growing up on a farm...I ummm...well, I saw the farm animals do stuff..." she began to sweat in earnest, as well as her body was reacting to all the memories of the farm combined with the memories of the dream floating past her eyes.

"Do you see me as an animal?" Fillia asked with very round eyes.

"Nooo!" Luna responded in tender empathy, "I see you as Fillia Ul Copt, ex priestess of the Golden Dragon Temple."

Fillia continued looking at her steadfastly, somehow managing to while reaching for Luna's unclaimed hand cross her uncovered parts in the dim light of the stars in the process.

"And..." Luna swallowed hard, suddenly quite sober, "the woman I love."

And with that, ever so timidly, she leaned over toward the little dragoness and with the inept skill of a young child, kissed Fillia ever so tenderly.


	17. Episode 17

**Episode 17**

"**On The Road To Elemekia: Confessions and Obsessions!"**

Lina woke up quite groggily, first noticing that some time during the night, Naga had fully wrapped herself around Lina, an arm under her neck and a leg draped over her thighs, which was less surprising than the fact she slept completely through it, and secondly that she had rolled all the way over facing Naga during the process.

"Oh gods girl," Lina wrinkled her nose, "When you drink, your breath stinks!" and with that she planted both hands on her mouth in a cross cupping motion and began to push.

Naga's head rolled away, but when she let go, it just came back, so she reached lower and pushed at the shoulder level.

"Nags, wake up..." she said almost playfully.

Naga's left shoulder rolled away, which merely lifted her ample bosom.

Fixing her gaze on this, Lina felt something inside her she didn't expect and couldn't explain drawing her to reach out and touch it.

"Surely she won't notice since she's so dead asleep..." she thought to herself, and gingerly at first, then with the same amount of pressure she used trying to push her face away, she pressed her hands into both of the squishy melon sized lumps of flesh on the older girl's chest.

Naga made mumbling sounds and smiled peacefully, but seemed to have no indication of waking up, until Gourry burst in the door saying, "Guys wake up!" which in fact did wake her up and both girls screamed loudly.

Gourry ducked a flying spiked shoulder pad which embedded in a post which supported the awning of the building as he fled the room at full speed.

Lina stared at Naga wide eyed, caught in the act, and Naga stared at Lina wide eyed, amazed she would do it, but then Naga's face melted into the most peaceful and adoring smile Lina had ever seen.

Lina unfroze and leapt up out of the bed, ran into the corner teeth chattering, eyes wild with panic, "Oh gods what have I done! What am I going to do now? What am I going to say?"

"Its perfectly alright Lina dear," Naga cooed in a softly blissful tone, "We ARE both GIRLS after all...right?" and then she broke into a soft giggle.

"Oh, uh, heh-heh," scratching her head nervously, "Why, uh, sure! Uh... Girls DO that stuff with each other?"

"SOME times they do..." Naga replied coyly while getting out of bed, "But, if you don't like it," she winked over her shoulder while plucking the spiked shoulder piece out of the awning post, "Nobody's FORCING you to..."

Lina cringed in anticipation of Naga's nerve shattering laugh, but to her amazement, it never came!

Looking up in amazement, Naga was merely getting dressed as if nothing in the world had ever happened!

"Well," she chuckled again, "I suppose I had best get dressed as well!"

**Ep 17, Chapter 2**

The rest of the morning went off without a hitch and after picking up their special elixir from the herbalist's shop, they proceeded easterly in the direction of Elemekia.

Lina walked along deep in thought, Naga was humming a cheerful tune, Fillia was holding Luna's arm and they were talking about the various birds and trees along the way, Sylphiel was holding Gourry's arm watching the frown on his face as he was deep in thought.

At the rise of the next hill however, all of their thoughts were interrupted as a band of perhaps thirty foul looking beast-like figures appeared, blocking the road.

"We know who you are there!" one with gray skin and gills growled from a face very much like a shark's, "We don't appreciate you messing up our plans none either. See?"

"So what are you going to do about it, fat mouth?" Lina shouted defiantly, "You going to try to fight us?"

"We're going to get revenge for you killing our boss and-"

"Not THAT again!" She decried their cliché rambling, "Fireball!" and that quickly they were into a fight.

To her surprise, however, not a single beast-man was fazed.

"Hah-hah!" the shark-man roared, "You gotta do better than that!" and the whole band of beast-men flung blazing showers of small magic energy bolts at the group, forcing Lina to cast a warding spell.

"They're all pledged!" Naga shouted.

"You're telling me!" Lina shouted back, "We've never crossed paths with so many pledged monsters at one time!"

"What do you do in a situation like this?" Luna challenged.

"What we did with that creep who tried to kill Nags back there in New Xoanna!" shouted back over the cacophony of the explosions.

"Understood!" Luna shouted back with a nod to Fillia, who immediately vanished in a flash.

"Sylphiel!" Lina shouted, "We need a sustaining spell here!"

"Yes," she responded, but a flicker of doubt crossed her face.

Fillia teleported only a short distance away to a mountaintop and transformed into her true form so she could fly faster and sense further.

Soaring through the sky, she sensed many magical sources, and one by one inspected them all.

Several were people of lesser magical abilities, usually terrified at her approach, although one did try firing a magic bolt at her to no effect. As she sped around the countryside, she would some times get a tingling sensation in her tail, and finally she glanced back and noticed that occasionally the golden rose (which somehow grew proportional to her size) would cast off colored sparkles of light.

Finally she took this as a clue and went directly to wherever a source would cause sparkling.

When she found the item, she would bring the rose up to it and some some times the item would vanish in a flash of light, and some times the sparkles would leap onto the item and it would take on the same golden glow she experienced when they first fell upon her and the rose.

Meanwhile, one monster at a time would suddenly lose all their powers, and Naga began picking them off with her freeze arrow until they were all frozen solid.

"Well," Lina finally let down her shield, "The only thing left to do is-"

"Find out who they are and why they attacked us." Luna interrupted, yanking the shark man out of his ice shell with her bare hand and shoving Einlanzer into his shoulder, "Who are you and why did you attack us?" she growled.

"You'll never get a word from us!" he growled back defiantly.

With a whip of the sword she him diagonally in half and said, "If that's how you want it," and stepped back, "You get your wish Lina," spitting on the ground in disgust, "They're not talking."

"Alright!" she shouted, and then, began reciting the spell for the dragon slave.

"Uhhh...Lina? Shouldn't we be a little farther away for this?" Gourry asked.

As Fillia materialized beside Lina, this startled her and she stopped casting.

"Yeah Lina," Luna said, lets get a little space from them first.

"Well..heh-heh," she chuckled, "I suppose I did get a little caught up in the moment, huh?"

**Ep 17, Chapter 3**

As a thundering fuchsia blast ripped the distant hilltop out of existence, replacing it with a smoldering crater, Lina dusted off her hands, turned to the group who were patiently observing from behind her, "There's nothing quite like a good dragon slave to wake a girl up in the morning!"

With that the party proceeded east down the path, incidentally forming up into two rows of three: firstly Lina and Naga, secondly Gourry and Sylphiel, and lastly Luna and Fillia.

"So Lina," Naga began, lovingly studying the lines of the younger girl's face.

"Hmmm?" she responded, unaware of how Naga was eying her so affectionately.

"What are you going to do when this is over?" she asked softly.

"Oh..." sighing and looking at the sky, "Probably retire from adventuring I suppose."

"For real?" Naga gasped.

"Yeah," Lina said, "Its too much trouble being a mercenary any more." picking up a rock and tossing it away, "It doesn't pay well and there's too much competition."

"It seems a lot has changed since I last saw you." Naga said, with some disappointment, "I was hoping we could travel far and wide, doing all kinds of crazy things together...like the old days, but better."

"What do you mean 'better'?" Lina asked tensely.

"No more fighting on opposite sides, no more getting in debt to you, no more hiding your things..."

"HIDING MY THINGS!?" Lina exclaimed, turning to the older girl, "You HID my stuff?"

Realizing she let slip a secret, she blushed and gazed at the ground, "Yes," she confessed, blushing in shame, "When I said I destroyed it," she sighed, looking up at the sky, "I lied."

"Why you-" Line began to ignite a fireball.

"I FULLY MEANT to give it back, I swear!" Naga's hands outstretched in a warding motion, "I swear!" a look of sincere remorse stopped Lina in her tracks.

"So you did put on that great big show to make me mad, when in reality you hid all of it?"

"Yes," Naga confessed, "And I'm terribly sorry for doing that to you."

"But WHY?" she demanded in confusion, "What was the purpose?"

"Because..." she began to sniffle, tears coming to her eyes, "I didn't know how else to get near to you!"

"NEAR to me...?" Lina frowned still confused, "How did that get you NEAR to me?"

"Well," Naga confessed, "There WAS a lot of luck involved," as she diddled her fingers together pensively, "I was going on impulse as much as anything."

"Well you sure got us in a lot of jams along the way!" Lina grumbled, remembering various unpleasant events in their mutual journeys, "But I have to admit," she blushed and turned away, remembering some rather pleasant, if somewhat lurid moments they shared, "We had some good times as well I suppose."

"All I can say is that I'm terribly terribly sorry for all the stupid things I did," Naga continued to sniffle, "But I was young and impulsive, and not too bright."

"You can say that again!" Luna tried to regain her normal cocky stance, but the emotions showing in Naga's eyes was too much to bear, "But I guess I have no choice but to forgive you."

"Thank you so very very much!" Naga wept, "I promise I will never ever again do anything foolish or demeaning to you again!" as she dropped to her knees before Lina taking up Lina's hands in supplication.

Gourry's eyes bulged as he saw the proceedings develop to this point, but said nothing.

"Well to start with," Lina noticed the audience finally, "Maybe we can sort of take up this conversation later...in private?" tilting her head to indicate the other four gazing on with different expressions on their faces.

Coming to herself and looking back at the other four, especially Gourry who was aghast at the open display of affection she was producing, stood up quickly while turning away and blushing deeply, but then, thinking about the young man's reaction, she began giggling while wiping the tears from her eyes.

As they walked further, Fillia leaned toward Luna and said in a quiet but swooning tone, "Oh..." sighing softly, "That was beautiful!"

**Ep 17, Chapter 4**

As they passed through Elemekia, the party rented a farmer's guest house for the night.

Since there were only 2 bedrooms in the cottage, sleeping was crowded.

Gourry, Luna and Fillia, took the living room floor, Lina and Naga took the larger room and Sylphiel's small room was for her self.

Naga's giggling began seeping out of the guest bedroom after a few minutes, and Lina's muffled voice came back, "Naga," almost whining, "stoppppppp!" in an uncharacteristically half hearted request which one would have never before heard from the young girl. This was followed by more, even louder giggles, and "Nagaaaaaaaaaaaa!" and the thump of something like a pillow.

Gourry went to the farthest corner, wanting both to be a gentleman, but also, being weirded out by all the girl on girl love he had seen recently.

As Luna and Fillia lay down on a mat together, they murmured quietly to each other just below his hearing and that made him even crazier.

Finally when he could stand it no more, he asked, "What's with all you guys?"

Luna popped up to a sitting position? "Huh?"

"You and Fillia, Lina and this...what's-her-name-"

"Naga." Fillia interjected for him, rolling up on one elbow, trying to be polite, but not wanting to hear what was being said.

"Yeah- her." he shook his head a little bit trying to get it straight, "Anyway," he resumed, "What's up with you guys and all this...this...GIRL-friend stuff?"

"Why do you want to know?" Luna asked in a calm, almost motherly, yet somewhat haughty and defiant tone.

"Well to be honest," he groaned, "Its giving me the creeps!"

"You don't HAVE to BE here you know..." Luna challenged, "I came for my sister, not some half rate tag along swordsman after all."

"Hey!" he sulked, "Who you calling half rate?"

"You want to challenge me," Luna offered, "We can take it up at sunrise."

"Luna..." Fillia got a worried look on her face and tugged at the older girl's sleeve.

"Its ok sweetie," Luna responded, "I can take him in a cave, blindfolded." she said to Fillia, trying to reassure her, "Its for HIS sake I offer him the benefit of light to see by."

"I know-w-w," She persisted, "But that's not what we should be doing here." she had a look of hurt impatience, "We're here to save the world, not beat each other up..."

Letting out a sigh, "You're right baby girl," Luna conceded, then turning back to Gourry, "But as for YOU," she growled, "You just mind your own business and say out of my way!"

With that, Luna lay back down, Fillia laying her head on Luna's chest with an uncomfortable look of concern.

Gourry rolled his eyes to the ceiling and sighed, "I guess I'll just never understand..." and he unceremoniously flopped back onto his pallet and pulled the covers over his head.


	18. Episode 18

**Episode 18**

"**Wise Guys Look Out! Luna Will You Marry Me?!"**

Strolling down the path several miles from the capitol of Elemekia, the party walked in its usual formation, Lina and Naga, Gourry and Sylphiel, and lastly Luna and Fillia. Only today Naga was holding onto Lina's arm endearingly. Even though Lina appeared to merely tolerate it, rather than enjoy it, she made no effort to push the older girl away.

The countryside had turned more and more arid, and gradually turned into desert. The land was hilly and they were proceeding along the top of a low rounded ridge with small jagged canyonettes leading off intermittently on both sides.

As the day wore on, the heat bore down and the group began sweating profusely.

"Wow its getting pretty hot here..." Lina complained wiping the sweat from her brow.

"Its terrible!" Naga chimed in, "What kind of person in their right mind would be STUPID enough to live in a place like THIS!?"

"Hey!" Gourry complained, "My family lives here!"

The two girls looked at each other with a sly, knowing kind of smile, back at Gourry then to each other again and chorused, "THAT kind!" and then broke into giggling.

"To judge people by where they chose to live is mean and shallow minded." Sylphiel said, but nobody seemed to hear her.

"We should find water soon." Fillia declared.

"Where would we find water out here?" Luna asked her, "We're on the top of a high rise in the land."

"This land is known for caverns which can some times have small springs or even lead to underground rivers." Gourry answered, "If you can find even a small trace of water from a cave, you can some times find more water in the cool underground if you follow the caverns.

"So then all we have to do is find a wet spot and go into the hole?" Fillia asked enthusiastically.

Luna blushed deep red but maintained an otherwise perfect poker face.

Naga who had been marching along listening suddenly turned red, her cheeks puffing holding back with all her strength, until she finally burst forth, "P-p-ffffffffffffff-AAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA!" and she continued laughing and almost fell to the ground except Lina caught her.

"What's so funny?" Sylphiel asked totally lost.

Fillia first looked confused, then she blushed and whimpered into Luna's chest, "I didn't MEAN it that way!"

Gourry simply stared in confusion, "Huh?"

And Lina, holding up Naga from falling onto the hot sand went from a 'come on guys,' look gradually to giggling then full out laughter until she and Naga both struggled to stay on their feet.

**Ep 18, Chapter 2**

By late afternoon, as the heat bore down on them, Fillia did indeed smell water, "Everybody," she announced, "I smell water nearby."

"Great!" Naga exclaimed, "I'm DYING for a good wet hole about now!" then she began giggling.

"Nags..." Lina slapped Naga's shoulder and gave a 'shame on you' look in the eyes, but a sly sideways smile too.

"Ok, ok," Fillia said, drooping, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be!" Naga trumpeted, "It was GREAT!" and then giggled some more, "I haven't laughed like that in AGES!"

"Just ignore her," Lina said, "I learned to..."

Naga looked at Lina with a slight hurt look, but it was only for show, she was far too humble to be upset by things like this any more.

Fillia looked a little relieved, but she was still quite embarrassed and looked up at Luna furtively.

Luna nodded gently to her with a confident smile to assure her everything was going to be ok and Fillia smiled back weakly, then transformed into her true form, leaping into the sky to seek out the water she had smelled.

"I suppose we simply wait here until she finds the water," Lina declared, "Going anywhere without knowing where you are going is just wasted walking." with that, she reached up her hand and called, "Gray Buster!"

As a cloud of grayness formed around the party, the temperature dropped to a more comfortable level.

"This is MUCH better!" Lina purred.

"Yeah!" Gourry said in wonderment, "Too bad we can't use it ALL the time!"

Lina was about to conk him over the head for that comment but to her surprise, Naga caught her upraised arm and said, "No Lina, please?"

This flabbergasted Lina. "Are you feeling ok Naga?" she asked wide eyed.

"Yes," Naga replied calmly, "I'm better than I was before."

Just about that time, the sound of men marching and chanting in cadence began drifting toward them.

"Do you hear that?" Gourry asked.

"Yeah." Lina said quietly, "Sounds like an army."

"What should we do?" He asked.

"I don't know yet." Lina replied, "And if I lift Grey Buster to see them, they will be able to see us as well."

"Shouldn't we just see who they are?" Sylphiel asked.

"Well it couldn't hurt I suppose." Lina conceded and waved her hand as if waving off smoke or dust, which caused the spell to cease.

An outburst of surprise erupted from a large number of mismatched men who were marching their direction and as the ones in front halted in surprise, those behind them crashed into them, and in rapid succession the entire column of men piled up on top of each other because not a one of them had the wit to stop or even look ahead of themselves to see what had happened.

Lina and Naga both burst into full belly laughter at this sight.

"That ALONE was worth it!" Lina laughed heartily.

"Who are you that laughs?!" One man demanded from the undignified position at the bottom of the heap, "And how DARE you make a mockery of 'The Smart Mans'?!" Raising his first at them all.

"Ha-ha-ha!" Naga laughed in her peculiar manner which led people to cringe, "You have been laughed at by none other than the world's greatest sorceress," Lina was about to interrupt at this point when to her surprise, Naga concluded by saying, "The world renowned one and only LINA INVRESE!"

"So YOU'RE the one we're AFTER!" the man shouted, "We three hundred Smart Mans have gathered together in search of the most hated, reviled and despi-!"

Lina's jaw dropped and her eyes bugged out..."Are you feeling ok Nags?"

"Oh I feel QUITE alright Lina darling!" Naga purred, "Unlike how THESE knuckle heads are about to feel!"

"Get them!" the man shouted.

As the men rose up and began to charge the party, Naga concluded, "As I said...Freeze Arrow!"

"Fire Ball!" Lina called forth.

Gourry and Luna drew their swords and the entire party began sending the mismatched 'Smart Mans' flying in all directions, screaming as they flew.

As the hot afternoon wore on, it seemed like there was no end to the fight in sight, as many of the tougher fighters would get up and try again multiple times, but just as it seemed like it was hopeless Fillia came soaring in from the horizon.

Seeing her party in mid battle, she began strafing the area with blasts from her laser breath and in mere seconds, those who were still standing screamed "Dragon!" and fled every direction, usually down into the canyonettes seeking cover from Fillia's powerful laser breath.

"Its a good thing you came back when you did!" Lina praised her, "Short of a dragon slave, I don't think these guys were going to give up!"

"Well I found water," Fillia replied, "Maybe we should go there now."

"Amen to THAT sister!" Lina exclaimed.

Fillia raised her arms hands outstretched to indicate she was about to teleport, and everybody in the party drew near, then vanished in a flash.

**Ep 18, Chapter 3**

The party materialized in a canyonette, just at the entrance to a cavern.

"This is cool!" Lina exclaimed, "Its good to get out of this awful heat finally!"

As they all walked into the small cavern entrance, it gradually got larger, and the seep began to move more and more.

"This is why you never see the water out in the desert of Elemekia," Gourry pointed out, "The ground is porous and it flows underground until it dries up or reaches another cavern further along."

"Boy you sure seem to know a lot about this Gourry!" Lina commented in surprise, "For being so DUMB you know a lot about these caverns!" then to accommodate for the lack of sunlight, she called out, "Lighting." and her small bluish white orb appeared to illuminate the cavern.

"I lived here all of my life and had to learn to survive before I was allowed to become a fighter."

"Well," Lina shrugged, "That makes sense..."

"A lot of the people of Elemekia live in the caverns." Gourry offered, "Its cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter."

"You guys have winter here?" Fillia asked amazed.

"Oh yeah!" Gourry declared emphatically, "And they're nothing to laugh at either!"

"But how do you have winter in the desert?" she asked, "Where I grew up, it was always hot!"

"Well I don't know all the details," Gourry replied, "But it gets way cold and some times we would get snowed into the caves for half the winter! It took some tough guys to cut through the hard packed ice!"

"I'd have just used a fire ball." Lina said smugly.

"These caverns are made up mostly of loose rocks and sand." Gourry said, "Something like that would make them collapse."

"Humph!" Lina said, feeling snubbed and frowning, but paying attention to the path ahead of her, "Hey guys, I see a pool up ahead!"

"All-right!" Gourry exclaimed.

As they hurried to the pool, which was rather large once they got to it, the cavern opened up rather wide and levels of eroded rock showed more distinctly around the pool, showing signs of past residency such as old pieces of broken weapons, pottery, and human bones.

"Looks like the last occupants here never left." Naga said as she nudged a skull with her boot toe.

"Probably got caught in a blizzard and starved to death." Gourry ventured, "It happens to the weak and the inexperienced now and then."

"Well," Luna said, "Its getting along on nightfall, so we should stay here until morning."

Naga walked to the water's edge and reached down to feel the water. "Its warm!"

"Well some of these come from hot springs," Gourry replied, "The water comes from up in the distant mountains and passes for hundreds of miles underground before it comes up here in Elemekia."

"That reminds me of something I noticed recently..." Naga got this distant look in her eyes, squinting as if to see an image far far away in the past.

"What was that?" Gourry asked.

"There was this hot springs resort on Mipross Island Lina and I went to long time ago..." she had this distant look in her eyes.

"Oh." Gourry suddenly dropped, "Sorry I asked."

"Its perfectly ok!" Naga cheerfully returned, "We had a WONDERFUL time there, DIDN'T we Lina darling?"

"Not THAT wonderful of a time..." Lina replied as she walked up on the pool beside Naga, "We mostly fought monsters and morons."

"Well," She conceded, "But we did have SOME fun there, you HAVE to admit THAT..." she leaned over at Lina conspiratorially.

"Nags," Lina roller her eyes, "I think you were mostly showing off with that big line about imported water and all that to do about 'Naga's hide' -"

Luna's outburst of laughter temporarily interrupted Lina's words.

"What's so funny?" Lina asked confused.

"Naga's hide!" Luna roared loudly in laughter, "Get it? NAGA's HIDE?!"

"Sheesh!" Lina smacked herself in the forehead with her palm in exasperation.

"See Lina darling?" Naga nudged her with her elbow playfully, "You have to listen more closely in the future!" and she winked.

"Oh, I get it alright..." she grumbled realizing she didn't get a joke that was five years old, "Now would you please change the subject?"

"So what was it you were talking about to begin with?" Sylphiel asked in resolute curiosity.

"Oh...yes." Naga resumed her original line of thought, "I realized while I was kis-"

"AH-HEM!" Lina began, growling dangerously at her.

Gourry saw this exchange and slumped again, turning to look at Sylphiel in a droopy, look of defeat.

Sylphiel reached his hands and drew them up in hers, trying to reassure him that he need not worry about Lina any more because she would always be there for him.

"As I was saying, while I was swimming in the hot springs resort recently, I realized that it was the place that the other resort had imported its water from!"

"You don't say!" Lina suddenly got the connection, "So then when we put that joker out of business," she had a look of revelation, "We took away a lot of this resort's business!"

"Well clearly you can't feel TOO bad for them," Naga rebutted, "After all, they WERE selling their water to a FRAUD..."

"But THEY didn't know that," Lina defended the local resort, which, other than their recent visit, seemed to not be doing well since the fall of the magical barrier three years ago.

"You know," Lina said, "I could sure go for having a hot spring in my home some day..."

"Well right now," Naga declared, "I'm dirty from all that fighting and sweating in the dust, so I'm going to hop in and relax and clean up!"

"That sounds like a GREAT idea!" Lina chimed in.

"I agree!" Fillia chirruped.

"Sounds like a good idea here too." Luna conceded.

"What about me?" Gourry asked.

"Nobody's stopping you." Lina said, "Just don't be watching while we change."

"I think you have the perfect solution for that Lina." Luna suggested, "Just cast Grey Buster and we can change in total privacy."

"Hey! Great idea!" Lina chirruped and then "Grey Buster!" which surrounded the girls long enough for them to change into swimwear.

"What about me?" Fillia asked in the gray magical cloud, "I don't have a bathing suit!"

"But isn't your present clothing just a magical construct?" Lina asked.

"Huh?" Fillia suddenly blinked in amazement.

"You know," Lina said, "Just something you make when you change into your human avatar form, right?" she said in an offhanded, matter of fact way, "So just MAKE a bathing suit!" she suggested.

"Well..." she shuddered nervously, "I-I-I suppose I could..." and she blushed deeply again.

With a flash of magic, she copied the bathing suit closest to her which was Luna's.

As Lina waved away the Grey Buster however, Fillia's entire tail right up to her back was in full view, her bathing suit just slipping up under it, exposing rather full, rich dragonly hips!.

"WAHHHHHHHHH-HOOOOOOOOOO!" Luna almost hit the ceiling as she leapt far out into the pool before her body had a time to react to the image burned into her mind, splashing down in the deep water far from Lina's illumination spell to keep her reaction from being visible to those who did not already know about it.

"What's wrong Luna?" Lina asked, "I've never seen you act like THAT before!"

"I-I-I-I-I j-j-j-just wanted to jump really far!" she said, "Can't a girl 'go jump in the lake' anymore without people asking why?" she said defensively.

"Well," Lina replied, "I suppose she CAN..." scratching her head suspiciously but unable to figure out the matter at hand, "Well," she shrugged, " 'Whatever floats your boat'..."

**Ep 18, Chapter 4**

Gourry and Sylphiel went up into the shelves of the cavern away from the water after getting some to drink in water skins and found a comfortable place to sit and talk, while Lina and Naga had waded out deep enough to sit down and relaxed.

"Hmmm...!" Lina bumped something with her toes, "What's this?"

She tugged on the oddly shaped rock to discover it was actually a sealed clay jar and quite a large one.

"You think it has a djini or an evil spirit in it?" Naga asked.

Lina shook it, looking ceilingwards "Evil?" then looking slyly at Naga, "No, but spirits? I think so."

"Ohhhhhh lucky me!" Naga almost yanked the large bottle from Lina's hands but then caught herself and drew back.

"What?" Lina asked, you going straight on me all of a sudden?"

"Straight?!" Naga asked wide eyed, "Oh heavens no!" she began to laugh mirthfully, then with a somber blush, "No, I just almost forgot my manners is all."

"Well," Lina considered, "Since you're acting like a lady about it," she pulled out the cork and gently pushed the bottle to Naga, "Here."

"Will you have some with me tonight?" Naga asked softly.

"Well," Lina pulled the mouth of the jar close to her nose to snuff the contents, "I suppose, just a little..."

Naga chuckled playfully, "Famous last words..." and winked as Lina took the first drink from the very large bottle of Elemekian fruit whiskey.

Fillia swam out to Luna, her long thick tail swishing back and forth in serpentine motion behind her and asked, "So why DID you jump all the way out here?" as she circled Luna and then came to rest up against her, eying her with a childlike and slightly playful expectancy.

"You know," Luna said in an urgently hushed tone, "I don't want them knowing about THIS."

"Huh?" Fillia dipped her head under the water a moment, then pulled back up blushing fiercely, "Ohhhh...Yeah."

Now blushing fiercely herself, Luna said, "Did you REALLY have to look?"

"Well..." Fillia took on a slightly guilty look, "No..." then after a few seconds, she giggled.

"DON'T giggle!" Luna squealed uncharacteristically, "Its IMPROPER!" she whispered urgently.

"I'm sorry," Fillia apologized shamefacedly, "I didn't mean to..."

"I swear," Luna sighed, shaking her head but placing her hands on Fillia's shoulders, Some times, I just don't know what to do with you..."

Fillia looked glum and guilty for a minute, then a hopeful look lit up her face, "Marry me?"

Luna was so dumbstruck by these words her jaw dropped open and she almost fainted, her head tipping forward, snapping back only when it hit the water, then shaking her head violently to clear the stun effect, she got a distant look of revelation and realization.

"Why didn't I think of that?!" she found herself amazed and ashamed at the same time, "Why YES YES YES!" she screamed so loud it made everybody else in the cavern jump from fright. "I WILL MARRY YOU!" she shouted in a rejoicing tone.

Already quite sloshed from the incredibly fruity high potency alcohol, the two drinkers looked at each other in inebriated astonishment and back to the two swimmers, mouths agape, then they proceeded to giggle ridiculously.


	19. Episode 19

**Episode 19**

"**The Intoxicating Desert Treasure! Flying Under The Influence?!"**

Lina awoke with a SMASHING hangover, and Naga wasn't far behind.

"Somebody please kill me..." Lina moaned.

Fillia arose from sleeping across Luna's chest, rubbed her eyes and shuffled down to the water's edge where Lina and Naga had slept mostly in the water because she and Luna had just barely dragged them that far out before they drowned.

Casting a healing spell on Lina, she asked, "Do you not normally drink Miss Lina?"

"No..." she admitted while rubbing her head, "And that stuff is strong!"

Naga rolled over and tried pushing herself up, only to collapse back onto her chest with a splash and a groan.

Fillia dutifully applied a healing spell to her as well, "I would have expected Miss Naga to have fared better though."

"I would have too." Naga mumbled, discovering a nasty taste in her mouth and cupping some water to swish through her mouth and spit back out.

"That looks like a good idea..." Lina said and followed suit, "Yuck! My mouth tastes terrible."

Gourry and Sylphiel came near, fully awake, some large lizards in tow.

"I caught breakfast." he announced, "Its up to you to cook them though."

"Oh well," Lina regarded the lizards, "It beats nothing." and she roasted them with a controlled flame spell.

As everybody ate, Gourry noticed the whiskey jar and asked, "Do you suppose there are any more jars around here?"

Luna stopped chewing and looked up, "That's a good idea." Then looking around, "Where did you two find THAT jar?" turning to Lina.

"I found it with my foot when I went into the water last night." Naga answered her.

"Hmmm" Luna pondered. "I suppose its certainly worth investigating." as she resumed eating her broiled lizard, "By the way," in between bites, "What's in the jar anyway?"

"Demon's Sweat." Naga replied.

"DEMON'S SWEAT!?" Sylphiel's voice croaked as she almost choked on a mouth full of lizard meat.

"Hey," Lina smiled cheerfully, "Its really good stuff when its made properly!"

"We used to use that for cleaning metal fixtures!" Sylphiel's voice returned to normal after she swallowed.

"I think perhaps you had the distilled alcohol Sylphiel." Luna replied, "My family makes wine and other beverages, and Demon Sweat is something some people make by distillation, true, but they do not use pure alcohol."

"Oh." Sylphiel replied, a slight blush crossed her face.

"What?!" Lina gasped in mirth, "You TRIED it?!"

"Well..." Sylphiel mumbled.

"Its ok Syl," Gourry consoled, "I think we've all tried something like that at least once in our lives."

Luna and Fillia gave him an indignant stare.

"O-oh...okay..." he stammered, "Maybe not EVERYBODY..." and it was his turn to blush.

"Its ok," Fillia replied finally, "I suppose you forget that I'm...I WAS a priestess, who lived her entire life in a temple..."

"I-I'm sorry Fillia," he scratched his head, "I wasn't thinking."

"What ELSE is new?!" Lina burst forth laughing.

"Well," Luna said as she rose from her breakfast, "I'M going to scout around for those jars!" then as she walked off, ""I suggest you all do the same. Its going to be a hot dry journey to where we are going!"

**Ep 19, Chapter 2**

They found jars, both full of the strong drink, full of water, and empty. Many more were broken. They seem to have been strewn around at random, as if they had been washed down stream from some other place.

"How will we know which ones are water?" Sylphiel asked.

"By opening them." Lina answered, "All you have to do is close them back up if they're Dragon Sweat."

"How many can you hold?" Fillia asked from a dark crevasse across the water form the main camp site.

"As many as you can find." Lina replied, "Why?"

"I think I found the main stores of this place."

The group crossed the large body of water to where Fillia stood, Lina casting another light spell on the the place she thought was the roof of the cavern only to discover that it was only a small area that lead to a far larger cathedral sized chamber above the waterline, filled with bottles and jars of many sizes, as well as some wooden barrels, boxes and even caskets all bound up for long term storage.

While there was evidence of water damage on the lower parts due to past flooding, the majority of the stores were in seemingly pristine condition.

"Wowwwww" the whole party chorused.

"What a treasure trove!" Naga marveled.

"There's enough here for a city!" Gourry exclaimed.

Prying open a box with Blast Blade, Gourry found dried meats, while Luna used Einlanzer to pry open a casket of dried fruits wrapped in wax coated paper.

"I'm pretty sure these guys didn't starve to death Gourry." Lina mentioned.

"I suppose you are right!" he marveled in agreement, "They were guards of this long forgotten trove of food!"

"Wow!" Lina pondered, "This would be a fortune in food on the open market!"

"But what about those people who were protecting it?" Sylphiel asked emphatically.

"Welllll.." Gourry shrugged happily, "Finders, keepers!"

"Ha-ha, yeah!" Naga cheered.

"We have to mark this place carefully then put up protections on it." Luna warned.

"We can use a recall stone," Fillia offered.

"Perfect idea!" Lina exclaimed.

Sylphiel's empathy for the previous owners aside, went ahead and enchanted some of the soil from the floor of the storage room, then plucked up six round stones from the center of the enchanted area, passing five of them to the other five members and keeping one for herself.

"Now any one of us can find their way back here," she warned, "provided you do not lose your stone."

"You heard the lady people," Lina announced, "Guard that stone with your life!"

They all stowed their stones in safe places on their persons, then they worked as a team to load as much food and drink as they felt they would need for the entire journey into Lina and Naga's capes.

**Ep 19, Chapter 3**

It was still early morning when everybody left the cavern.

As the party stood outside the cavern, Fillia plucked a single hair from her head then lay it upon the ground just at the entry of the cavern.

She called for them to all hold hands and stand with their right foot inside the passage of the cavern, and one foot outside of it.

While they all held hands, she made them recite a holy spell called, 'The Unbroken Ring.'

"Midday moon, midnight sun, come together here as one, call upon the force of nature, eternal bound 'gainst any creature, nary may pass this simple string 'cept unfast' by this unbroken ring."

A shimmering of light crossed over the entrance exactly where Fillia's one golden hair lay, and the entire entry seemed to vanish into solid stone.

Even as they looked, it seemed as if their feet and lower legs were bonded to the stone, yet they could feel the fact it was not so.

"Okay," Fillia announced, "Nobody but we six can ever again enter this place for eternity."

"Wow." Gourry marveled.

"Hey that's pretty cool magic!" Lina chirped.

"Its similar to the holy spell laid upon Galveira, but its much stronger and can't be neutralized," Fillia replied, "But it can't be created by a single person. There must be more than one person for it to be cast."

"Very interesting." Luna mused.

"What happens of one of us is not here?" Sylphiel asked, "I mean what if one or more of us is some other place and can not be here to enter?"

"Any of us can enter if there are more two or more of us." Fillia replied, "But any single one of us can never find the location even with their stone. There must also be more than one stone to work the gate."

"Deep." Luna responded with an appreciative smile, "Well people," she sighed, looking up at the morning sky, "We may as well get going soon, before it gets much hotter..."

"That's a great idea!" Fillia responded, I'll go up and look around for a path the direction we need to go." and with that, she floated up into the sky high enough to allow her dragon sight to survey the land for as far as the planet's curvature.

**Ep 19, Chapter 4**

The party walked along the canyonette until it opened up into a larger canyon, which eventually opened up onto a sloping plain strewn with rocks and tough shrubby plants accustomed to the high heat and low moisture.

They were not on a path yet, but rather were following the water course as far as it would take them toward their intended destination.

As the heat of the day bore down on them, they drank as much water as any of them wanted, although it was warm and not very palatable, leading to a lot of grimaces of distaste.

Fillia, however, did not seem to mind for some reason.

She drank jar after jar of water, and the more she drank, the happier she seemed to appear.

After six jars, she seemed to be glowing, and she began humming a beautifully haunting tune they had heard from her before.

They crossed paths with a beast which looked much like a turtle but had immense spikes on its back and tail, with six malevolent white eyes to see around its head in all directions.

Luna and Gourry took sides and began hacking and jabbing at it for weak spots while dodging the spiked tail.

Lina, knowing what COULD possibly happen, had the forethought to cry out "Grey Buster!" on herself, Naga, Fillia and Sylphiel.

Finally Luna, using her superior speed and agility caught it paying too much attention to Gourry and stabbed it between the shell and the neck, scoring a fatal wound.

The massive beast wailed and thrashed in pain before shuddering to a stop, letting out its last dying breath breath like a big sigh.

"Don't look at it Naga," Lina warned, "You know what will happen."

"What can I do?" Naga asked in worry, "I can't remain here forever."

"Close your eyes, and I will lead you out of sight of it."

"But I may stumble on the uneven ground."

"Okay," Lina said, "We'll use ray wind and fly until its safe for you to open your eyes then and you just hold my hand."

"Okay," Naga agreed to this, closing her eyes and bracing herself mentally for this, "I'm ready."

"Okay, one, two three!" Lina shouted then together they chorused, "Ray Wing!" and left the ground, the gray buster spell instantly dissipating as they soared away.

Sylphiel picked up Gourry, and Fillia picked up Luna and followed.

Fillia giggled all the way and swayed slightly in her flight.

They proceeded to fly throughout the heat of the day as long as their magic would support them and when Sylphiel began to falter, she called out, "I'm running out of strength, I am going to have to land soon."

"Okay," Lina replied, settling lower to the ground in anticipation, the others following suit.

They had gained a lot of distance while flying as well as they had located the main road through the region.

As evening drew near, they began to see signs that they had crossed nearly the entire empire of Elemekia and were entering the condemned lands bordering the Desert of Destruction.

They searched for shelter in the rocky outcroppings, finally finding one overhang which showed some promise.

Fillia, using her laser breath, carved out a cavity into a place large enough for them to all sleep comfortably. She seemed to be quite thoroughly enjoying herself and began writing on the walls. She wrote "Fillia and Luna, True love forever" and little hearts and flowers before Luna walked up to her and laying a gentle hand on her shoulder, said, "We shouldn't advertise our presence out here sweetie."

Fillia blushed and giggled, smiling up at her sheepishly and then leaned into her with a "Muuuuuuuuuuaah!" kiss and then wrapped her arms around Luna tightly.

"I think you weren't drinking water Fillia darling." Luna declared softly, "And umm, I need to move the rubble out of there before we can actually lay down, okay?"

"Mmmmmm.-okay!" she replied, giggling like a little girl then releasing Luna as if she were tossing an armload of leaves into a pile in anticipation of leaping into the middle of them.

Gourry and Luna dragged the larger rocks out of the hole, pushing them up into a pile which provided a slight barrier between them and the outside, making them more difficult to see by casual observers.

There they ate dried provisions and drank water or Demon Sweat, depending on who selected which, and everyone slept soundly except Fillia who giggled incessantly all night.


	20. Episode 20

**Episode 20**

"**Desert Rumble! Blackened Jewels and Bloodied Fools!"**

The party flew eastward beyond Elemekia in the early morning, just as it was becoming light enough to see, hoping to make good time in the cooler morning air.

As they soared over the vast plains of tumbled basalt and sand dunes, the terrain grew rougher and rougher, meaning that when they did land, 'walking' was going to be more climbing up and down than actually walking.

About mid morning they stopped and settled down under a basaltic overhang to avoid the hot sun while they rested.

"How far do we have to go yet?" Naga queried.

"The problem is that it never said WHERE in this desert the gems would be found, it just gave an image of a shiny black stone." Lina replied.

"Heh." Luna said sarcastically, "Like you're going to find a black stone out HERE..." while picking up a chunk of black basalt and then dropping it, watching it make a splash in the sand.

Fillia broke out into new giggling, and then everybody else followed suit.

"Okay" Luna stopped laughing first, barely keeping control, "First we have to know some way to determine this thibix orthinux gem from all the rest of the common black and nearly black rocks around here."

"Ah-ham..." Fillia struggled to regain her composure, "I saw one when I was at the temple."

"Anything special about it?" Luna asked.

"It has somewhat of a 'black glow' about it." she said, "Its hard to explain."

"So the gem possesses supernatural powers then?" Naga suggested.

"It would seem that way." Lina replied.

"But out here," Naga said glumly, "Its still like looking for a needle in a haystack..."

Fillia's eyes lit up, "And you know how to find a needle in a haystack?" raising her index finger.

"How?" Lina asked, looking dubious.

"Use a MAGNET!"

"Heyyyyyyyy!" Luna caught on, "Yeahhhhh!"

"I don't get it." Gourry complained.

"Oh Gourry," Lina shot back, "You never get ANYTHING!"

"Its really quite simple though!" Fillia went on, "All stones reflect light..." looking around to see if everybody was following her train of thought, "So all one has to do it bathe the entire place with light!"

"Well its almost high noon sister," Lina challenged dryly, "How much more light are you going to need?"

"No-no-no-no!" Fillia made a suppressing motion with her hands, "Magic light! HOLY light"

"Why magic light?" Lina began, then slapped herself in the forehead, "Ohhhhhh! I get it!"

"Do you have a spell to create this holy light?" Lina asked.

"Why of course!" Fillia breathed exultantly, "Its part of my required knowledge as a..." her voice trailed off with a note of sadness remembering all that transpired at that time.

"An ex priestess," Lina sighed, "Its okay Fillia."

"I think I should be going now," Fillia declared, "The sooner we find it, the sooner we can be out of this place and back home!" and with that, she flew up into the sky until she was completely out of sight so that she would be high enough to cast her light spell over the entire region.

As she looked down from far above, the mottled Desert of Destruction, there were lava pits, spires, crags, crevasses, smoking cones, and vast expanses of broken basalt nearly to the horizon in every direction.

Transforming into her true dragon form, Fillia stretched forth her hands and called out, "Oh Ceiphied's Light, brighter than the brightest day, come to me and cast shadow away. I call to thee o' king of the skies, light the way before my eyes!"

From between her hands a dazzling ray leapt forth toward the desolate lands below, making everything except a few specific palaces fade to a dusty white.

Those places which were not faded white were the most strikingly radiant black.

Choosing the largest one she saw, Fillia followed her outstretched hands toward the radiant blackness until she came directly to it

Once she landed near the rather large stone, she quelled the holy light spell "Ceiphied's Light," she used her immense dragon strength to dislodge the massive gem, then teleported back to the party.

**Ep 20, Chapter 2**

"Okay Lina," Luna inquired, holding the watermelon sized stone, rolling it over looking for flaws, "What did Ceiphied's bible say we had to do next?"

"The Dust of Isolation must be made from the finest dust of the thibix orthinux gem which is found in the burning desert pits in the Desert of Destruction. This dust must be handled only by holy hands, consecrated in the water of the third fountain of Elmash Vale." she recited.

"We passed by the vale on our way here," Fillia commented, "Its so unforgettably beautiful!"

"Well then," Lina announced, "There you have it, we're off to do some hand washing!"

The party flew back across the desert as far as the city of Hottown in Elemekia, where they landed just around sunset.

"It looks like a decent place to stay for the night people," Lina declared, "I say its time to EAT!"

"I'm all for that!" Gourry chimed in, and the party scanned the mud brick buildings for a tavern or inn where they could satisfy their hunger of freshly cooked food instead of dried rations.

They seated at an outdoor dining plaza under umbrellas on a cobblestone porch front.

Naga, Lina and Gourry entered their usual eating competition while Luna, Fillia and Sylphiel's dinners are much more modest.

As the eating proceeded, however, Tiny George, one of the bandits from Mipross Island happen to be walking by and saw Naga whom he immediately recognized.

"Hey!" He shouted, pointing his massive finger, "You're one of those two sorceresses who wrecked everything for us on Mipross Island!"

Looking up, from a leg of beef, she casually replied between chewing,  
Well well, fancy that." and proceeding to eat paid him no mind.

"Hey!" he shouted louder, "Don't ignore me! That's rude!"

"Heh-heh!" Lina chuckled cheerfully. "Fancy that!"

"Who is this guy anyway?" Gourry asked.

"I have no idea." Lina shrugged.

"Well he sure seems to know Naga."

"So?" Lina shrugged dismissively, "A lot of people have heard of us."

"I'm going to get you THIS time!" Tiny George growled as he ripped the wall down off the porch in the process of climbing up to them.

"What's this jerk's problem?" Luna demanded, incensed, "And why is he making a mess while we are busy eating?"

"I think he wants to fight Miss Lina." Fillia offered.

"Well he sure picked a bad time for that!" Luna growled, shoving herself away from the table.

"Hey guys!" Tiny George shouted back over his shoulder, "Look who I found!"

"Who is it Tiny George?"

"Tiny George?!" Lina turned to face him finally, "You're one of those SQUID HEADS who tried to make my vacation a disaster!"

"Hey!" Tiny George complained, "Who you calling a squid head?"

"You! You stupid squid head!" she shouted, "No get out of here before I have to tear you up AGAIN!"

About that time, heads began popping up around the porch as others of the 'Smart Mans' bandit gang closed in, all bearing weapons.

"Ummm...guys," Luna said, unhooking Einlanzer and its companion shield Warlacher from her charm necklace, looking around at the party, "You know what time it is..."

"Right!" Gourry said as he leapt up drawing Blast Blade.

"Freeze Arrow!" Naga shouted.

"Fire Ball!" Lina called out while creating an inverted arc of fire which crushed inwards like an implosion on a group of bandits which had gathered around Tiny George.

Soon the entire town seemed to be a war zone, as other Elemekians joined in the battle.

Windows crashed, pots smashed, swords clashed and the air rang with the sound of explosions.

"Oh well," Fillia sighed, "Nothing left to do but join in...!" and she lifted her skirt and pulled out, "Lets go to work Mace-Sama!" and she dove into the fray smashing people right and left.

Luna leapt up and in a spiral nose dive sliced six men to pieces before landing on a single finger and pushing herself back into the sky.

Gourry leapt left and right, bringing Blast Blade up then down, scoring hits on every swing.

Lina blasted smoldering holes in the group anywhere they were bunched up, while Naga used both her sniping skills on archers who had gotten into upper story windows or onto rooftops.

When men rushed either Naga or Lina however, they were swift with clean jaw breaking and rib cracking kicks, as well as an occasional groin crushing knee or boot toe.

The shouts of rage and pain went on into the wee hours of the night.

Lina had used up a lot of magic power and resorted to close combat with her dirk, while Naga drew on her years of Muay Thai to lay waste to many a foe.

Three kicks to one man's face so fast he hadn't time to fall took all the teeth out of the left side of his head, while a rabbit punch to the ribs of another dropped him to his knees.

Whipping her hair around her as she spun, she inadvertently caught one bandit in the noose and yanked him off his feet with a snap that left him motionless.

Feeling the sharp tug on her scalp, she looked back and saw the fruits of her new hairstyle, and began to laugh. Not the shrill laugh she used to laugh, but a deeper, throatier, more DANGEROUS laugh.

Yanking the noose from her unintentional first victim, she spun her noose like a lasso and began yanking men off their feet while planting her spiked heel into their backs.

Several snapped necks resulted as well as some broken ribs and two broken lower backs.

Lina parried and blocked swords using her dirk, but to reduce the chances Naga would see blood and faint, she used punches and kicks to put her attackers down.

Gourry and Luna spread out throughout the melee taking down foes by the dozens, slicing, stabbing, punching, kicking, wrenching arms, using their elbows and whatever else happened to come in handy.

Fillia simply swung Mace-Sama and walked randomly knocking anything and anybody out of her way, virtually heedless of who they were, until she almost struck Luna, but instead striking Warlacher a glancing blow.

"Whoa! Watch if Fillia darling!" Luna shouted while jabbing a one eyed bandit in his other eye.

"I'm so terribly sorry!" Fillia gasped in shock and horror, tears beginning to well up in her eyes.

Casually looking at Fillia to her left, while fighting three swordsmen to her right, she replied, "Don't be upset sweetie," in a smooth, calming voice, "Just be more aware of your surroundings while you fight, ok?"

"Yes Miss Luna," she whimpered, "I promise to!"

"Come give me a kiss then." Luna swung her left arm back to receive the dragoness's kiss and embrace while steadily fighting the bandits as if she had eyes in the back of her head."

Gourry noticed this and was awestruck, "Whoa!" he gasped in awe, eyes bulging as he watched Luna handily dispatching two and three men at a time with her head turned fully away from them, "How does such a Sword's Ma'en even EXIST?!"

He barely reacted in time as a bandit tried to take advantage of his momentary reverie, but with an upper parry, he kicked the man in the solar plexus and dropped him easily, returning to the fight at hand.

Fillia, after a long, romantic kiss, feeling very much more alive and rejuvenated, stepped back away from her beloved and resumed battle anew.

This time, she made more accurate aimed blows, smashing skulls, breaking backs, cracking ribs and on occasion even tripping somebody with her tail.

By midnight, the downtown area was a spectacular scene of carnage. Most of the 'Smart Mans' gang fled in defeat, Tiny George leading the retreat, a few were hauled off to the morgue, some to jail and others were dragged off by angry citizens of the city of Hottown to be dealt with in undisclosed fashion.

Naga was feeling rather generous and began pouring free Demon Sweat for all the people of the city who happened to be milling around after the carnage.

"All in all," Lina said as she got to resume her meal which had sat JUST outside the edge of the destruction, standing next to the table, about to seat herself to resume eating, she felt truly elated and was suddenly inspired to say, "People, I'd say its been a really good day!"

"Here-here!" Luna raised a glass of Demon Sweat Naga poured for her, and the whole party and all the town citizens cheered, and drinking went on throughout the night.

**Ep 20, Chapter 3**

Back in Zephilia, Antonio showed signs of recovery, however slight, as the warding talisman pushed the Deathwind crystals out of his body into the bed beneath him.

Every day, he seemed a little fuller and less wasted, as if his body was slowly recovering from the effects of the cursed plague.

The physician who visited him to see the improvement was looking worse however, and was worried he would not last very long himself.

Many of the older people had passed away and their bodies were carried off by stretcher to a distant point where they continued to disintegrate while most of the city remained sedated and quarantine signs were posted everywhere.

Alyth and Bruno had no customers any more, and were smart enough to not go outside.

They kept the doors and windows closed tightly to keep any wind from blowing anything into the inn.

"Well momma," The big voice of Bruno boomed across their living room behind the kitchen, "I wonder what will happen when this is all over."

"Well," Alyth said with some reservations, "I think I know ONE thing that is going to change forever."

"What would that be momma?" He asked, hoping for some good news from his wife.

"Luna is all grown up and will be leaving us." she said softy with a hint of melancholy in her voice.

"Wh-why momma?" the huge man's voice became sad and carried a worried tone.

"Its not a bad thing poppa," she replied, a little tear at the edge of her eye, "You know, life goes on, and people grow up, just like we moved away from our parents to this beautiful place where we met Luna and Lina and their parents," she sighed, "Its just the way of life..." her voice drifting off.

"But..." he struggled to get the words out, "But what makes you so sure of this?"

"I found something," Alyth replied, "While I was cleaning Luna's room."

"You FOUND something?" the huge man asked, still worried.

Alyth rose and went into the bedroom and returned with a guest towel which she made the effort to shake out, but failed to because it was stuck together in the middle.

Bruno frowned quizzically. "A guest towel?" not understanding.

"Not just a guest towel," Alyth corrected, "A guest towel with dried SEED in it."

"Seed?" The big man suddenly got a look of surprise and blushed deeply, "NO!" he gasped like a heavy autumn gale, "LUNA?!"

"I would have wondered if another man had been with her," she continued, "But I have known for a while that Luna is not attracted to men, and that one man who was here seems to be interested in little Lina," she reasoned, "And I saw her get up early from her room to go to the bath, while that boy Gourry was still asleep in his own quarters."

"You don't say...!" Bruno pondered the depth of the issue, "But why would she be leaving us though?"

"You didn't see how she is with that girl Fillia, dear."

"I'm sorry," he chuckled slightly in agreement, "I really don't see much of anything from the kitchen momma."

"She and Fillia have something strong." Alyth concluded, "Strong enough to be permanent."

"You really think so...?" he pondered it some more.

"Trust me poppa," and she tapped her forehead with a staunchly determined look of certainty, "Momma knows!"

**Ep 20, Chapter 4**

For the first time ever, Lina and Naga were seen as heroines instead of villains and they asked if the whole party would stay and defend them but they naturally had to graciously decline.

The town waved cheerfully at them as they lifted off seeking to make better time across the desert toward the Elmash Vale.

Speeding high over the desert, the party flew along near the ground for a while until Lina recognized thin trails of blood and decided she had best get Naga to a higher elevation where she would be less prone to notice the ground below.

Higher up, they could see a rare thunderstorm exhibiting beautifully colored lightning in the distance, as well as herds of animals foraging the desert wasteland for anything they could find, and three caravans all going to unknown destinations in search of profit trading whatever unknown items they carried.

It was a great day to be alive, and as they flew along, fingers outstretched, Lina felt the sudden unprecedented urge to wrap fingers with Naga.

This startled the older girl so much she almost faltered in flight, but she regained, smiling at Lina warmly and blushing, feeling deep emotions which welled up in her leading to tears which the wind blew back from her.

"Hey!" Gourry shouted, "What was that?" as he wiped his face, not knowing it was Naga's tears that hit him as Sylphiel carried him.

"Sorry!" Lina shouted back, which amazed everybody, since this was so unlike her gruff demeanor.

Naga smiled even more broadly at this sudden change in demeanor from the girl she had loved for all these years. The love she used to hold in secret was now possible for her to express openly.

Luna and Fillia seeing the others locking fingers followed suit, and Fillia, expressing the most emotion she had ever expressed, and finally feeling truly free for once in her life to do so, suddenly exclaimed "WHEEEEEEE!" as they sailed across the desert.


	21. Episode 21

**Episode 21**

"**The Holy Grail?! Fillia's Future Sure Looks Bright!"**

Elmash Vale was easy enough that anybody could find it, there were guided tours here in the spring. The falls roared as the river Luotok crashed down the vale one step at a time for a thousand meters.

Lina occasionally would draw stick figure faces on the "See Elmash Vale!" signs, just to annoy the Emperor of Lyzeille in the past, but this time she just walked by it.

Naga looked at the sign then at Lina, "Are you sure you're feeling alright?"

"Oh," she waved it off, "Ever since I found out that old coot got extra revenue for that stupid sign, I decided to leave it alone." Looking up at Naga knowingly, "It pisses him off MORE knowing that I no longer do it!"

"So where's this special fountain we're supposed to be looking for?" Lina looked up and down the vale where rainbows played with the mist and made looking in very difficult.

"Its down in there some place Sylphiel replied, "But only a few people know exactly where it is."

"In other words," Lina said, "We have to go down in this wet mess and find it, huh?"

"It would seem that way," Sylphiel's soft voice barely heard over the rush of the falls.

"Well, we better get to it, time's a wasting. Ray Wing!" and the young sorceress leapt up and then settled down into the mists, soon vanishing from sight.

"I suppose I should be down there too." Fillia offered and flew down into the mists as well.

The two of them were drenched in seconds as the cold wet air soaked them thoroughly.

Climbing up and down over slippery tumbled stone was difficult and they often slipped and fell, repeatedly casting healing spells on each other's bruises.

"WE COULD SURE USE SOME HELP DOWN HERE!" Lina shouted.

"I don't think they can hear you!" Fillia shouted back over the din.

Lina frowned, "_I should have thought of that before I came down here_." she said to herself.

After much searching, they found an overhang where a spring burst forth from the rock about chest height and about as large as a person's wrist.

"_This is fountain number one,_" Lina noted to her self, then motioned for Fillia to come near and shouted to her, "This is the first one! We need number three!"

Fillia merely nodded understanding and they went along the wall looking.

About thirty paces further, a larger fountain was bubbling up out of a crack in the rock under foot, and it was barely strong enough to be called a fountain, only rising about knee high on Lina.

"_Not very impressive_," she noted to her self then raised her fingers to indicate the number 2.

Fillia nodded and followed.

Amongst some tightly bunched bushes one could just barely make out a very small head of water rising up and down above the tops of the waist high plants.

The fountain didn't look particularly special, but it was the one shown to Lina by the bible, so that was all that mattered.

There in the middle of a circle of plants with very threatening thorns, was a small fountain about the diameter of a person's finger. A normal human could not reach the middle without impaling themselves on the immense spines, so this was not an easy feat for anybody so far as Lina could tell.

Lina pointed to the fountain with one squinted eye and then made a thumbs up signal to Fillia.

Fillia motioned for Lina to step back so she could transform, then transformed into her true form. In her full size, she easily reached over the vicious looking thorns with ease having gained enough size to reach the middle of the circle with ease while standing clear of the thorns to the side.

Humming a beautifully haunting tune, Fillia closed her eyes and the water from the fountain stopped tumbling back to earth, but instead began forming a small ball of liquid between her dragon sized hands, shimmering and emitting a pale blue light.

Eventually the ball of water engulfed the hands of the dragoness and continued to grow until it went to her elbows.

Suddenly the golden rose on her tail emitted rainbow colored sparkles which flew upward over her back and wings, around her shoulders and into the water.

The pale blue shimmering light was replaced with a pure white light of dazzling intensity and for a moment, it seemed that all sound was stopped and in fact as if time its self stopped.

Lina saw small droplets suddenly slow to almost motionless in the air. They were crystal clear prisms which displayed every color of the rainbow as they slowly crossed the light from above.

Just as fast as it happened, it was over. It was impossible to determine just how long it had been, but it seemed like it was a very long time.

There was a sudden large splash as the ball of water collapsed to the ground and ran out from beneath the spiked bushes.

Fillia's skin literally glowed. All over. Her hands were absolutely impossible to look upon, but her entire body shone quite brightly.

Swinging her tail to touch Lina before Lina had time to react, Fillia teleported them both to the top of the vale.

**Ep 21, Chapter 2**

Fillia materialized in her human avatar, dry as if nothing ever happened, while Lina reappeared still cold and wet. The major difference for Fillia however, is that even in her avatar form, she was still glowing.

"Brrrrrrr!" she shivered, "That was cold!"

"That was one impressive consecration!" Luna admired.

Fillia just blushed...which in this case made her face glow pink.

"Well now that we have made her glow," Gourry asked, "What next?"

"Guess we have to make this huge gemstone into dust somehow." Lina offered, "And not have it all blow away on us."

"What can turn the gem stone into dust?" Sylphiel asked.

"It didn't say that part." Lina grumbled.

"Perhaps she can just smash it with her strength?" Luna suggested.

"Where did it say to put the dust to hold it?" Naga asked.

"Some holy relic called 'The Holy Grail.'" Lina shrugged.

"That's at the shrine!" Sylphiel's soft voice chimed.

"Well then," Lina smiled, "Next destination Sairaag!"

The party collectively flew the short distance to town from the vale in a few minutes.

From there they flew directly on to the shrine of Flarelord Ceiphied, where Sylphiel's family had for many generations comprised the priesthood of the shrine.

Once inside the shrine, Sylphiel led them through some chambers and finally to a heavy metal door that opened up out of the floor when used.

"More underground chambers." Lina rolled her eyes and glanced at Naga who nodded knowingly.

"Its not that far down," Sylphiel's soft voice promised.

As the priestess produced a thick shiny metal key from her sleeve, she turned it with a heavy metallic clack.

Pulling a ring handle up out of the door, another mechanism sounded and the door slowly opened with the sounds of mechanical motions. On side of the door, immense iron gears were mounted, driven by other large gears which rotated on a common axle.

As one looked into the dark hole, they saw an iron mechanism drive a stairway upwards out of the gloom of darkness until it reached the top and stopped with a solid, heavy and precise click.

"Very impressive craftsmanship!" Luna marveled.

"Ceiphied himself forged every part and had only golden dragons install them."

Luna whistled in appreciation and Fillia's eyes went wide with wonder.

A light from below suddenly was there without warning, and down the single long flight of stairs was another metallic doorway.

The light emitted from forty small points near the ceiling of the staircase, clearly magical in use, yet how they could magically turn on and off without a spell being cast was a complete mystery.

Upon turning the key in the amazingly smooth second door, many mechanical sounds from some place began and the door slowly split down a previously invisible seam to slide away to each side.

They walked down another metallic hallway to yet another metallic door.

"How many doors are we going to have to go through?" Lina asked impatiently.

"This is the last one." Sylphiel's beaming smile shone forth.

This time the door split horizontally, half rising and half lowering. Lina made note that these doors were almost like mirrors and the seams where they met could not be seen by the naked eye.

"Boy Ceiphied sure is one helluva craftsman..." Lina marveled.

"A-hem!" Fillia said looking at her. Her presence being amplified by the fact she was glowing too brightly to stare at.

"Heh-heh," Lina chuckled nervously, "Crafts...GOD?"

Fillia smiled graciously.

There a large octagonal metallic room lit up as the door receded flush with the floor and upper door way.

The room was lit from the high ceiling, but Fillia's glow flooded the room with much more light.

There in the middle stood an octagonal metallic pillar and atop that a beautifully ornate iridium chalice the size that the gem would easily sit right into. Being iridium, it seemed to shift colors as one walked around it, as if the color was not reflected, but more like it was emitted by the metal its self.

"You would think these two were created for each other." Fillia marveled as she approached the chalice with the glowing black stone. The light emitting from her hands made eerie radiating streaks of blackness as it reflected from her hands.

These seemed to re-reflect off the walls, however they got lost in the positive normal light which was much stronger.

She gently lowered the massive gem into the even larger chalice. At this point, all of the black radiance seemed to be trapped within the chalice as if some force kept redirecting it back inwards.

"What is that thing made out of?" Lina asked.

"Pure Iridium." Sylphiel replied.

Expressions of awe came from everyone who heard the reply.

**Ep 21, Chapter 3**

"I will need the entire room to my self," Fillia softly announced, "I must resume my true form to perform this next part of the task."

"Ok," Lina responded, "Got ya." and she ushered everybody out the door so Fillia would have enough room to fit.

As her body glowed even brighter, she transformed to her full size once again, having to coil around the room somewhat to fit.

Placing her massive, blazing white hands over the chalice, she began humming yet another melody, and the glow was so bright nobody else could look and they all turned away.

"I think I can see the back of my eyeballs!" Gourry complained.

"That's because your HEAD is empty!" Lina stepped into the verbal opening he had left her.

Fillia continued to hum for a brief while longer, then she chanted, "Ceiphied Ceiphied, maker of light, Flarelord of day, destroyer of night, taker of darkness, maker of stars, smashing pure blackness to the smallest of shards! Give me the breath of Holy Light!"

Releasing a wailing scream that made everyone's head ring even with their hands over their ears, Fillia emitted a burst of laser light from her mouth which went between her hands into the chalice.

The force of the light alone made the chalice dance and tremble as if it were trying desperately to escape her grasp and the overwhelming source of light which was being poured forth into it.

The light within the chalice could not escape in any direction, which made the thibix orthinux gem resonate at its harmonic frequency.

The scale grew higher and higher and higher and the party had to race up the stairs and outside the chambers to find relief from the mind splitting ringing.

Even then it seemed the ground was ringing.

The city around the shrine began to tremble lightly, making dishes rattle, chairs and tables dance, and animals cry in pain.

Just when it seemed there would be a full scale earthquake however, there was a deep heavy lurch to the ground that knocked everybody off their feet with a strong concussive 'thump.'

A ring of dust seemed to leap off the ground in a ring which rapidly radiated from the temple all the way to the horizon, sending birds in the distant forest into harried flight.

This was followed by a short crackling rumble like a distant rock slide, but it soon faded. And then, calm. That suddenly it was silent.

The group scrambled to their feet and hurried back through the temple, down the metallic stairway and to the end of the metallic hallway to find everything lit at a normal light except for Fillia's still glowing arms and a flat level inky blackness existing just short of the top of the immense chalice.

**Ep 21, Chapter 4**

"It looks like we're on our way back to Zephilia at this point," Lina said, then looking to Luna,  
"Sound good to you?

"Sounds good with me." Luna conceded.

"By the way," Lina asked Sylphiel, "Why is that Holy Grail not guarded any better than it is?"

"Because its pure Iridium." came Sylphiel's simple reply.

"What?" Lina reached out for the large chalice. "Thi-whoa!" Lina's eyes bugged out as the chalice failed to budge, yanking herself off her own feet.

"I'll have to carry it." Fillia said in a soothing tone as she picked it up as if it were made of wood.

"Iridium is quite heavy," Sylphiel's tone becoming rather matter-of-fact, "Its said to be the second heaviest material in the universe."

"There's something heavier than this?!" Lina's eyes bulged.

"Yes." Sylphiel replied, "There's a metal called Osmium," she spoke in a calm, lecturing manner, "Which is found in the land of Os."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yes," she continued, "It was said to be the secret power behind the great magic of the Wizard of Os."

"Wow!" Lina marveled, "Well Naga," she decreed with a sparkle in her eye, "When this job is done, WE'RE off to see the Wizard of Os!"

"When this mission is over," Gourry said, "I'm going to settle down!"

"Why would you do something like that Gourry?"Lina asked in surprise.

"Because," he sighed deeply with a look of sadness, " After all these years of adventuring, I've finally learned that there's no place like home."


	22. Episode 22

**Episode 22**

"**Rising To The Occasion! Fillia Takes Flight and Luna Reaches New Heights Of Embarrassment!"**

Carrying the chalice proved to make magical flight more difficult. When she only carried Luna on her back, it was no effort at all, but with the immense mass of "The Metal of the Gods," it was almost like carrying a small army with her.

Fillia was needing to rest more than the others even though her strength was more than adequate to support the immense weight of the object. The power drain had even sapped the glow from her until her arms barely glowed and the rest of her was back to normal.

"I can cast recovery spell on you only so many times before I'll be too drained to fly my self." Lina commented, "There must be some other way."

"I know this golden rose Luna gave me has a blessing from Ceiphied on it," she pondered, "Perhaps I can use it for strength in flight."

"I-its worth a try," Luna tried to remark in a nonchalant tone while blushing.

Lina looked at Luna and smirked, "Growing up so soon big sis?"

"Leave me alone." Luna growled, raising her fist, but blushing deeper in the process.

"Kill me now and end the world..." Lina smiled sweetly.

"Whatever." Luna crossed her arms looking away still blushing.

"Well I for one am not ashamed or embarrassed to say I love Miss Luna," Fillia glared at Lina, "And I don't appreciate you giving her a hard time about it!"

"Okay, okay!" Lina smiled nervously, "C-can we just get on with this?" waving her hands in a warding gesture.

"Ah-hem!" Fillia composed herself, "Father of Fire, Maker of Light, Bless your servant with the power of flight!"

The golden rose beneath her dress emitted light which happened to illuminate her legs like a shadow against a curtain in a rather embarrassing way which she was unaware of, but Luna and the other saw it and although she couldn't help to take a sideways glance, Luna turned away from the spectacle and bit her knuckle trying to keep her mind off it.

As the light faded from beneath her, the glow on the rest of her returned and she once again had the power to fly easily with the massive chalice.

Taking off with Luna on her back, she felt a peculiar pressure up against her back and this made her blush as well, but more from excitement than from shame, "I feel you Miss Luna," she whispered once they were up in the air out of earshot of the others, "And I think I'm beginning to like it."

Luna barely suppressed a squeal of embarrassment at this even though she knew the others could not hear, "Please don't say things like that Fillia darling!" she whimpered in mortification.

"I'm sorry Miss Luna," Fillia apologized, "I didn't know it made you uncomfortable."

They flew on through the afternoon sky eastward crossing forest and fields until dark where they chose to set down in the city of Gyria where they decide upon an inn with ground level accommodations for fear the Holy Grail will fall through the upper floors.

**Ep 22, Chapter 2**

As the party walked casually into the inn, all eyes were on the Holy Grail which was so irresistible that people couldn't hide the fact they were lusting after the amazing relic.

"All these people staring at that thing is not a good sign," Lina grumbled.

"Yeah," Luna agreed, "Its going to cause trouble even if they can't steal it."

"No," Lina said, "I meant THAT thing." indicating the rise in her big sister's skirt, "What the hell is it?"

"Ahhhhhhh!" Luna spun around and mashed down on the extrusion vainly trying to make it go away, "Its a wrinkle in my skirt from being bunched up all day!" she blurted out, "I'm sure it will press out with a little ironing, yeah sure! I'll go to a local cleaner right away and have it fixed!" and she dashed off like a streak of light looking for some place she could remain long enough to hide the problem she was now facing: that one being Lina's final discovery of her recent unexpected changes!

The rest of the party went inside and Lina negotiated the rooms and then while Fillia went to her room and carefully set the grail down, the others went to the dining room and began ordering dinner.

Luna ran for quite some time because the city was fairly large before she could find a place to hide.

As she dashed into a stable which was closed for the day, she rested against the door relieved.

"Well, well, well!" came a soft effeminate voice from behind her, "Look who happened to pop up!"

Luna spun around to see Xelloss with his staff already glowing as if ready to strike.

"Oh my!" his eyes grew wide as he saw the protrusion propping up her skirt, "Talk about POPPING UP!" he began snickering, "No WONDER you're so strong!"

Luna detached Einlanzer in a flash and grabbed Xelloss up by the collar with the point of the holy sword at his neck, "You have something to say to me?" her voice got low and gravelly, her blush fading to steel gray as her eyes drew to angry slits of rage, "Orc turd!"

"Oh no, no!" he chuckled nervously, "You misunderstand me!"

"So," she growled further, "Enlighten me!"

"I was just passing through town and happened to see your party passing through as well, so I wanted to see what was going on!"

"Its none of your worthless ass's business!"

"Oh now," he chuckled, "Let's not get too hasty!" he petitioned putting up his palms, "Maybe we can share some information?"

"Like you have any information I would want or need." she growled then managed to slap him a hundred times in rapid succession with Einlanzer before dropping his bashed up avatar in a heap.

Looking down seeing she had safely receded and looked like her usual self however, and because if this she smiled and walked away singing "Life is Wonderful."

**Ep 22, Chapter 3**

'For the purpose of security', Luna shared a room with Fillia.

It was unknown after all, if some person, persons or monsters may not be strong enough to steal the grail and it was not worth the risk.

"Good night Miss Luna," Fillia said softly as she slipped under the covers.

"Good night Fillia darling." Luna sighed as she lay down in the bed next to her.

At that point Fillia dismissed the light spell.

As would be expected, bandits came in the night to steal the grail, but Fillia had placed an alarm spell upon the device which only she could dispel and allowed only her to touch the chalice.

As a blue sizzling arc struck the first thief who tried to grab the grail, the room was lit brilliantly and filled with the odor of ozone and burnt flesh.

Awakening to the sight of incandescent skeletons was amusing to Luna's rather brutal and sadistic sense of humor, and she chuckled at this.

When she went to leap out of bed though, she failed to realize that Fillia's tail was wrapped around her legs and she fell face first on the floor, feet still in the bed.

"Fillia dear," she moaned, "Could you please release my feet?"

Fillia mumbled incoherently and turned over in her sleep while Luna pushed herself up off the floor and back onto the bed to address the tail wrap issue.

"Oh my," Luna murmured as the situation went from amusing to arousing, and then to alarming, "Fillia darling," she tried a little louder, amazed that the screams of the men being roasted was not waking her up.

The sound woke Gourry and Lina who burst into the hallway just in time to see a line of would be thieves and commenced to charge them from both directions.

Naga awoke soon after the commotion but mostly because the bed beside her was empty, "Lina? Lina?" she asked groggily, only to see through the room's open door, men charging past one direction then flying back the way they came.

"Oh drat," she grumbled, "And I was having the most WONDERFUL dream..." so she leapt out from the bed and dove out the door calling out "Freeze Arrow!" as she ran.

The building shook and one wall came loose as Tiny George tore the side off the inn seeking the precious item rumored to be stored inside.

"Oh, man," he and simultaneously Lina moaned, "Not YOU again!"

The wall being torn off did awaken Fillia finally and she awoke with such alarm her tail sprung straight, which spun Luna back out of the bed onto the floor.

Reacting just in time, Luna stopped before she contacted the booby trapped grail and detached Einlanzer.

Fillia drew up Mace-Sama and began smashing the nearest heads to the bed while Luna leapt out the hole where the wall was and began slashing away at everything that stood in her way.

Gourry made it to the end of the hallway to one direction, and Naga made it the other direction, while Lina had already gotten outside through the hole in the wall in Sylphiel's room and had begun blasting bandits with her inverted fireballs.

"Here I thought I had made bandits extinct!" she grumbled.

Soon Lina, Luna, Naga and Gourry were outside battling bandits and flattening them out.

Tiny George, receiving his second inverted fireball from Lina now began to crawl away.

Following the bandits as they began to retreat, they left only Fillia who was still sitting on her bed and Sylphiel who was still in her room crouching down.

Fillia rose to check on the grail when Xelloss suddenly appeared behind her trying a choke-hold maneuver on her in hopes of extracting information.

"What's in the vase Fillia?" he began with a bemused tone.

Instead of answering him, she screamed, "Namagomiiiiiii!" at the top of her lungs, and flicked her tail from under her gown striking him in his crotch where the golden rose released a dazzling light show and a thunderous BOOM. The resultant force threw him screaming, all the way beyond the horizon.

Hearing Fillia scream Seeing the flash behind them and the thundering concussion that followed, the defenders left off pursuit and sped back to the inn.

"What was that?" Gourry asked.

"Xelloss." Luna said, "Who else?"

They did their best to lift the wall back onto the side of the inn and get some sleep before morning.

**Ep 22, Chapter 4**

Leaving Gyria in a shambles, Fillia convinced Lina to contribute some money to the restoration of the inn and then they left, Lina grumbling about it not being her fault that people were greedy.

They arrived in Zephilia by noon and Luna knocked on the door of the tavern.

Alyth cautiously peered out a window and then eagerly opened the door pulling Luna inside, motioning for the others to come as well.

The lady of the inn couldn't help but notice the result of Luna riding on Fillia's back even though the others had so far bought the crimped clothing story, but other than a knowing look, she discretely said nothing, but just smiled softly to her self, "I was right..."

Luna blushed, knowing that Alyth had seen her uprising and was only grateful she was not saying anything, even though she had no idea what the older lady was thinking.

As she closed the door behind them, she exclaimed, "Welcome darlings!" and scooped up both Lina and Luna in a huge hug.

"We can't stay long," Luna interjected trying to gracefully escape the embrace, "We still haven't finished the quest."

"Aww," Alyth began.

"Its true," Lina supported her sister's words, "We have most of the ingredients, but now we have to put them all together." Lina pondered, "We need some special paper." Lina looked at Alyth, "Might we get some of your white willow branches?"

"Well," Alyth replied in thoughtful surprise, "If you need it to cure this plague by all means use all of it!"

"I'm not sure we'll need ALL of it," Luna replied, "Just enough to make some talismans."

"Well dears," she said with a arm smile, "Use all of them you need and if there's any way we can help, by all means let us know!"

"Yes please!" Bruno thunderously agreed, "This lack of business is driving me crazy!"

"He's scrubbed every nook and cranny of the kitchen ten times already and wore out five pounds of pumice blocks scouring kettles!" she giggled.

"Its not that funny momma," the hulking man sulked, "They say boredom will kill a person."

"Well we have other ways of – ahem." she said smoothly, which made everyone's face but her own and Gourry's faces turn red.

"Well," Lina said scratching her head nervously while chuckling, "I guess we better get to it then!"

"Yeah!" Luna agreed, "Time IS a wasting!"


	23. Episode 23

**Episode 23**

"**Talismans In Zephilia! Luna Learns The Shocking Truth!"**

Early in the morning, just after sunrise and as hearty breakfast with biscuits, eggs, sausages, roasted leg of mutton, wine, milk, fruit preserves, honey, molasses and butter, Luna, Lina, Fillia, Naga, Alyth and Sylphiel all browsed the white willow branches for the perfect ones and filled baskets provided from Alyth's basket weaving hobby.

Gourry had to run back and forth carrying the baskets from the willow grove to the kitchen, where a now shirtless Bruno tended the fire under a massive alloy kettle which sparkled from the fact he cared for his cookware like it was a royal heirloom.

The mammoth man's muscles flexed like pistons on a steam engine as he stirred the pot, and Gourry would come in heaving each full basket then he would tip it in with one hand, making Gourry look like a weakling.

At noon time, they broke for a lunch with potato salad, cole slaw, fried fish, hush puppies, water melon, cantaloupe, more wine, and a crushed ice dessert made with the help of Naga's magic freezing abilities.

As the day wore on, they moved from boiling the willows to beating and rinsing them, and this took a lot of water!

The girls took turns using summoning spells to draw water up from the well, and into the vegetable sluice while the others worked through them by hand.

Gourry and Bruno would gather up a ball of the cooled willow branches like giant pieces of spaghetti and hammer them with wooden mallets in large granite mortars.

They would take turns striking the branches counting off to one hundred blows, then they would scoop them out and hand them to the girls who would rinse and comb them with large wooden combs which made them look like milky white flowing strands of hair.

As they would wash a bundle of strands, they would then drape them along racks to begin dripping dry.

By evening they had every available rack they could find and strung up ropes to hang the last of them.

"Wow!" Lina exclaimed, sitting on a bench just at the back of the kitchen, wiping the sweat from her brow with the back of her arm, "That was a LOT of work!"

"You haven't work that hard in your life, have you Lina?" Luna ribbed her younger sister knowing how lazy she was.

"I haven't either!" exclaimed Naga with a heavy sigh as she plopped down against Lina, laid her head on her lap looking up at her with a look of playful curiosity.

"What?" Lina asked looking down, forearm still to her forehead.

"Nothing," Naga said and smiled softly, "Just laying here, admiring the view." in a most casual and slightly suggestive tone.

"Oh youuuuu!" she began to shove the older girl off on the ground, but when Naga curled inward giggling, instead she changed tactics. Bit her lower lip while looking out on the yard she took hold of her nearest arm with one hand while tickling her with the other.

This produced repeated squeals and giggles from Naga which made everyone else laugh except Gourry who just slowly turned away and looked off into the distance.

**Ep 23, Chapter 2**

For dinner, several large briskets had been on slow broil all day long so that the fat drippings would smoke them full of flavor, slow baked sweet potatoes, more cole slaw, roasted corn on the cob, and still more wine.

Dessert was a confection made of dried fruits and cream that was so melt in your mouth scrumptious that Fillia, Sylphiel and even Naga squealed with delight, and Lina said, "Wow! That's really good!"

Alyth chuckled at Lina's compliment and Bruno rumbled softly with laughter, "Oh, that's my little Lina," she purred proudly.

"What?" Lina asked, looking up innocently.

"Oh," Alyth purred, "Its just you is all." she smiled, "Same as you ever were."

"I've grown up a lot since I left here," she said in a shy but defensive tone.

"Oh Lina" she smiled, "I know you have," and she took the girl's hand, "And I'm very proud of you!" then patting her hand she said, "But you'll forever be that rowdy little girl at heart, and precious to Bruno and I forever."

"Awwwwweeeeeee" Luna said, putting on a mock adoring look for Lina who blushed, "Little sis is still cute!"

"I like her..." Naga piped up, showing her usual wine flush, "I like her a LOT!" leaning her chin on Lina's shoulder with a REAL adoring gaze.

Gourry got a sickly, self pitying look seeing Lina and Naga so close they could kiss, while Sylphiel's hand caressed his arm soothingly while she looked up at him adoringly.

"Well I personally love Miss Luna." Fillia resolutely declared, leaning up against Luna's side.

"I love you too darling," Luna said in a soft reserved tone, blushing.

"I was right!" Alyth smiled brightly at Luna, releasing Lina's hands and pressing them to her own cheeks.

"Right?" Luna's eyes got big and round.

"Yeah," Lina asked, "Right about what?"

"We'll talk abut it later...in private," Alyth said in a motherly tone, "If you feel like it."

"Uhhh" Luna said nervously, "Sure."

"Well," Lina said, "I don't know what THAT is all about, but it sure has me wondering..."

"I guess you'll just have to wonder, huh." Luna gave her a dead eye stare.

"Uh-heh-heh," Lina chuckled nervously, "That's okay, I really don't need to know," then standing up, throwing Naga's head back and almost knocking her to the floor, she grabbed Naga's arm and lifted her to her feet, "Come on Naga," hefting her into a side cradle carry over one shoulder, "Time to get you to bed before you get a severe hangover again."

"Ohayyyyyyy" Naga slurred peacefully, then giggled, "Goohniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iigh..." and followed up with more giggling.

"Well momma," Bruno pushed himself up from the table, "I'm going to clean up these dishes and get some sleep."

"I'll be in there shortly poppa," Alyth replied, rising and crossing the room to the back door to her personal herb garden where she raised all the spices the tavern used, "Luna?" she raised her eyebrow slightly inviting her to speak in private.

Gourry got up and said, "Well, I'm off to bed now too, see you all in the morning." and with that he yawned and walked down the hall.

Sylphiel and Fillia helped Bruno bus the table.

Luna got a consternated look on her face, feeling she wasn't going to like whatever it was Alyth had to say, but it seemed too important to not speak about and Alyth was as important to her as her mother, so she respected her too much to refuse anyhow.

Alyth waited at the door as Luna crossed the room and went out ahead of her, then she shut the door, bolting it from the other side so nobody could eavesdrop.

**Ep 22, Chapter 3**

Luna knew about this place from experience.

Alyth never took anybody back here into her inner sanctum except for very extreme reasons and it was specially designed with fountains, water clocks, wind chimes and artistically shaped sound baffles to make eavesdropping impossible.

The last time she was here was the time she nearly killed Lina and then lied about it.

The first time was when she was first caught beating up the boys on the street for calling her boobs girl, right on the tavern's front steps where she upset several of the patrons trying to enter and leave the establishment.

When momma Alyth had something to say, she was always right and no matter what, you had best listen to her!

Walking ahead of Alyth, Luna felt much like a little girl again, and when she got to 'the seat', she sat as would be expected, then asked pensively, "What do you want Momma Alyth?"

"I think its time we had a little talk." Alyth began with her patent opening line, which never changed regardless of the person or the topic.

"Have I done something wrong?" Luna asked hesitantly, looking like she was ready to duck a blow.

"Oh, no, no, no!" Alyth suddenly broke out into a hearty warm laugh she was repudiated for.

"Then why call me in here to talk?"

"Because I have something to show you." she said, while reaching behind her white marble seat in the twilight, pulling up the guest towel Luna had hastily thrown in the laundry hamper.

"U-u-u-u-u-th-th-thaticanexplain!" Luna's eyes suddenly grew wide with panic and alarm reaching for the cloth defensively.

As Alyth deftly snatched it back, "You can, can you?" she began toying with the younger girl playfully, but then she took on a very stern tone she was known for in this room, "Then please do."

"Well – umm – you see, umm, I umm – I - "

"Really have no idea," Alyth said with a cool, victorious, knowing tone, "Do you little one?"

"Well, uhhh..." Luna's eyes showed a look of helpless dread, loss and defeat as if she just saw her life's savings being hauled away on a cart, "No" she whispered.

"I knew that." Alyth said in a soft, motherly 'I-told-you-so' tone, "But its okay sweetie." she said in an encouraging tone, "Because I do."

"You DO?!" Luna's eyes went wide in amazement.

"I do," Alyth declared, pulling her long ruffled hem back so Luna could see, "Because I am too."

Luna gasped at the sight, bringing her hand over her mouth, "You-you-you-!" and then fainted dead away.

When she awoke, she was being cradled in a motherly fashion by Alyth, and she jerked up, looking at her still alarmed for a moment, then getting a more frightened look she asked, "Is this from the PLAGUE?!"

Alyth absolutely screamed with laughter, tears flying from her eyes, slapping her knee, doubling over with laughter.

Luna just stared at this never before seen behavior of the always calm, occasionally stern, totally motherly woman she had learned to love like a second mother, dumbfounded.

Finally as the laughter resided, she pulled a handkerchief out to dab the tears from her face, still abruptly bursting forth intermittently, gasping for slow breaths to bring her laughter under control, "Sorry – tee-hee- about that..." she sniffled from the runny nose produced by the tears, but smiled broadly, "I suppose its something so few people know and you wouldn't have known to ask anybody, so its totally okay, seeing as clearly you only discovered it after you learned of the plague..." she took a deep breath, "Ewwwwwh..." she let it out letting the last of the laughter escape softly.

"So I was BORN this way?!" Luna asked, still frightened and amazed.

"We all are dear," Alyth replied, "All of who are like this I mean."

"Like this?" Luna asked, "Like what?"

"We are neither male nor female little one," she calmly resumed in her normal motherly tone, all traces of laughter past, "We are known as Futanari. The third sex?"

"THIRD SEX?" she wailed, "But I don't want to have sex! I CAN'T have sex! I'm a virgin Knight of-! "

Alyth put her fingers on the hysterical girl's lips, "Shhhh..." she shushed calmly, "Just listen."

"Long long ago, back when humans were first created, all people were this way. We were the rule, and not the exception."

"We wewe?" Luna asked through Alyth's pressing fingers.

"Shush dear," she said again, more sternly, yet still tenderly, "As I was saying, we all began this way, but during the great war between Ceiphied and Lord Ruby Eyes, more than just the two great powers were split, we humans were also split as well."

"How did you find all this out?" Luna lifter her fingers with her own hands.

"Oh," Alyth replied coyly, "I have my ways...but you don't worry about all that right now."

As the older lady took a deep breath, she continued, "We who are Futanari are like 'throwbacks' of an earlier, simpler and more perfect time in human history, back before the intervention of the Mazoku race and at a time when the Gods actually interacted with the humans who worshiped them.

"Although I myself am not at liberty to speak on my own situation," she continued, "I CAN say that the very fact that you have a part of Ceiphied within you AND you are a Futanari is VERY important to the future somehow, and I think I have a suspicion as to why and how."

"You d-?" Alyth's fingers once again stopped Luna.

"As I have gathered," Alyth explained, "You and Fillia Ul Copt are in love and thinking of marriage, am I correct?" and she then withdrew her fingers for Luna's answer.

"Well...but-" again the woman's fingers returned to stop her.

"And you have likely been having dreams about her, yes?"

This time Luna blushed but didn't say anything.

"As I suspected." then she asked, "And you do in fact have this condition, which, although you seem to not have realized it, has enabled you, to in effect, become a father."

Luna's eyes grew wide, but instead of returning to a panic mode, she simply began to contemplate the recent events leading up to this very conversation, "But if I'm supposed to be 'a virgin for Ceiphied's will'..." she began.

"Define 'virgin'." Alyth required.

"Pure?"

"Oh..." Alyth frowned impatiently, "Come ON now..."

"Ummm..." she blushed and stammered, "No-no-not h-h-h-having su-su-su-sex?"

"WRONG!" Alyth pronounced as if she were a game show host, then more seriously, "It means 'undefiled.' "

"But..." Luna asked, lost.

"Sex within a SACRED MARRIAGE is undefiled."

"It issssssssssssssssssssss?" her eyes grew wide.

"Humans who have no contact with the gods can't know this because they only go by the physical and not the spiritual, so they don't know anything other than that there is an action involved." she sighed, "Pity it is for them," looking down at the ground sadly, but then looking back up at Luna, "What I'm GETTING at, " she took up Luna's hands, "Is that YOU and FILLIA in fact ARE virgins, AND if you REMAIN virgins until the holy sanctification of marriage by a priestess of Ceiphied, you will REMAIN virgins BECAUSE you will remain holy and undefiled!"

Thinking back on the times she and Fillia accidentally touched in embarrassing ways she began with an air of being crushed, "But we..." looking up with shame.

"Oh I would know if you had done anything little one." she said knowingly, "You're both still safe..."

Luna let out a sigh, only to hear Alyth say, "Barely."

"Huh?" Luna looked up again worried.

"You have to just keep your feelings and body parts under control for the time being," Alyth said, "Until the time is right and Ceiphied's will decrees it.

"How long -?" she began.

"Who knows, little one?" Alyth cut her off, "That is something we have to take on faith." then she rose, lifting Luna by her hands to stand, "Well anyway little one," she said aiming Luna toward the path back to the dining room they came in by, "I think you should get some sleep. You have a lot to do tomorrow." as Luna walked away, Alyth lovingly swatted her backside, "And don't you worry about it little one," she admonished, "Just relax, do what you were called to do between now and then and everything will all work out in Ceiphied's good time, just you wait and see."

"Yes, Momma Alyth," Luna replied obediently, blushing, "Good night."

"Good night little one." she said, folding her arms in proud confidence in a job well done.

Although Luna slept snuggled up tightly with Fillia, she found she no longer had that terrifying feeling of dread or discomfort about being discovered and they both slept peacefully until morning.

**Ep 23, Chapter 4**

Day broke with everyone well rested.

After another hearty breakfast, the party went out to gather up the still damp white willow fibers, which were then carefully set into a loom Alyth used for making cloth and woven into a fine fabric as thin as paper.

Sylphiel cast a motivation spell upon the loom to make the work less tedious, but much of the work then went into laying the fine cloth out and cutting it into the desired size, applying the dust of separation and the black lotus extract.

Sylphiel operated the loom, Lina and Naga sorted and fluffed fibers, Gourry and Alyth cut the fabric to size, Luna and Fillia added the writings and Bruno cooked, saying all that delicate work was just not his speed.

Alyth teased him that he was just afraid to look too dainty, but he simply lifted his massive hands which were like bundles of sausage and rubbed a little but of the thin fibers into a snarl before she threw a towel at him saying, "Go on you then clumsy lummox!" with a giggle.

Bruno chuckled and ducked inside before the towel got to where he had been standing.

After noon, they had the talismans all out drying on every flat surface they could find including the rooftops of several nearby buildings.

As sun set, they gathered them up into bundles which they put into sacks and stuffed into Lina's and Naga's cape.

"Well," Luna announced, "It looks like we go at sunrise..."

With that they all went inside for dinner.


	24. Episode 24

**Episode 24**

"**Back To Wolf Pack Island! The Sealing Of Fates!"**

When dawn arrived, everybody rolled out of their respective beds and began milling around groggily as usual, brushing teeth, brushing hair, dressing, eating breakfast and making small talk until Lina and Gourry finally wiped their mouths, pronouncing the end of the morning ritual.

"Ahhhh..." Lina sighed, patting her belly, "Now off to go do this thing!"

They marched northward toward the crypt site, the evidence of the continued progressive destruction was evident.

More forest was missing, land was barren dust as far as the eye could see, and the bones of birds and other animals which had wandered into the affected area or breathed the dust lay around crumbling into dust.

"I think everybody should be wearing warding talismans at this point." Lina said, pulling out hands-full for people to put on themselves.

Everybody set about sticking them to themselves, on arms, legs, chest, foreheads and each others' backs.

Soon they looked quite comical with all the talismans covering their bodies.

Only Luna had none because she knew that Ceiphied's power protected her.

Arriving at the site of the crypt, all signs of humans had vanished and even the dirt of the sides of the hole had begun to collapse into dust so that as Luna walked down the ramp, puffs of dust floated up from her footsteps, making the scene even more foreboding.

Carrying the holy grail, Fillia followed Luna to the crypt, and they both walked directly up to its entrance.

Setting down the grail, she and Luna took a much closer look at the doorway, which revealed no apparent means to open it.

"We can't find any latches!" Luna shouted up from the crater, "We need a way to open it from the inside!"

"Okay," Lina shouted back, "I'm coming." and she marched down the hill into the pit along with her sister and Fillia. "Well," as she assessed the situation, "There's no outside mechanism..." placing her hands on the stone door, she recited, "Doors and latches, triggers and traps, clocks and watches, panels and slats, reveal to me your deepest secrets!" and a soft clicking sound came from inside the stone door.

Swinging slowly open with a soft hiss, more gray fog came drifting out of the crypt, but it fled away from them as it rolled out into the low places of the pit.

Fillia placed the chalice within the crypt which appeared otherwise totally empty and totally pitch black, almost as if it were a void in the universe.

"What will happen next?" Luna asked, "Will you put the Deathwind in the holy grail?"

"No," Fillia replied softly, "Upon its release, the grail will return to the temple we borrowed it from all on its own."

"Shame," Lina said, thinking of its worth.

"Would you stop being so damn GREEDY for once?!" Luna growled, "Sheesh!"

"Now I call upon the holy spell to bring all of the Deathwind into the crypt." Fillia announced.

"Okay," Lina said, "Then we slap all these talismans on it as fast as we can."

Fillia closed her eyes, slowly raised her hands heavenward in a supplicating gesture and began reciting the spell,

"Little lost demons, wander never more,

come home, come home, enter by the door.

In the name of Ceiphied, I to the entreat,

come home, come home, rest thy tired feet.

"Little lost wanderers, wayward children all,

come home, come home, hear my holy call.

In the name of Flarelord, thee I do adjure,

come home, come home, find rest eternal sure."

A golden light emitted from beneath her dress once again as the power of Ceiphied's blessing radiated and filled her with its divine energy, and halos of power spread outward from her across the land in all directions.

A violet fog coalesced out of the thick dust at their feet and seemingly out of the air its self, and began flowing into the entrance to the large crypt right past the three of them as if they were stones in a stream, the talismans keeping the fog from approaching their bodies directly in the case of Fillia and Lina, however, with Luna, it simply rolled off of her because her divine protection already made its entry into her body impossible.

Looking down from cloud level, one would be able to see these multiple bubble halos of golden light race outward like shock waves from a blast, only silently and causing blessing in their path instead of destruction.

As the waves of light crossed into the edges of the sickly forest, the living trees began healing immediately, putting forth new foliage, while a shimmering violet fog began seeping out the trees and crossing the barren land, flowed toward the crypt from which it originated.

As the golden wave crossed the City of Zephilia the sickly people suddenly awoke, the violet fog lifting out of their skin and from their nostrils, all leaving their bodies and drifting through doors, walls and windows alike, uninterrupted by physical objects in their return to the crypt where they and their parent crystals originated.

Soon, people were awake and walking and talking to each other, people were embracing each other all over, although some were mourning their dead.

As the violet glowing fog returned to the crypt, it flowed like a river in such masses it seemed impossible for it to all fit within the confines of even this large crypt.

"Everybody come down here now!" Luna called, "We will need to put these talismans on here really fast!"

The three at the top of the hill rushed to the site and bundles of talismans were unpacked from Lina's and Naga's capes ready for rapid application.

In a few more minutes, the fog tapered off and finally trickled to nothing, and with talismans in hand, Lina pushed the heavy stone door shut and began slapping talismans on as fast as she could.

The whole party rapidly followed suit.

In minutes the entire crypt was covered in multiple layers of talismans, as Fillia, Lina and Luna together rolled the crypt over on its back so as to be able to plaster the base with talismans as well.

"What do we do with it now?" Sylphiel's voice carried a worried tone, "We can't just leave it here for somebody to discover and open up once more!"

Luna and Lina looked at each other and together said in unison, "Send it back where it came from!"

**Ep 24, Chapter 2**

Lina hired a large group of men to oversee loading the immense stone crypt carefully onto a custom built wagon and then carrying it in as direct a route to the sea as possible.

The party went along with the crypt to ensure nobody was stupid enough to try to open it up for any reason.

At the dock, they loaded the cart and all directly onto a special barge being towed by a merchant freight vessel, which they negotiated partly with gold but mostly with Demon Sweat.

Of those saddest to see the precious liquor go, it was a toss up between Naga and Fillia, who had become quite fond of the drink despite its name.

"Noooooooo..." Fillia mournfully cried in despair as she saw a massive cargo hold worth of Dragon Sweat being unloaded from the magic capes in exchange for traveling to the dangerous and mysterious Wolf Pack Island with an equally dangerous and mysterious cargo.

"We HAVE more," Lina cajoled the dragoness who was tearfully clinging to the last jar as if it were her newborn child..."When this is all over, we'll make a special trip, just to get both of you some, ok?

"Promise?" she sniffled, finally relenting and letting a ship's mate take the jar from her loving grasp, she and Naga both waving at the jar as the crewmen jovially carried it into the ship's hold.

"That's a promise as good as gold!" Lina promised.

As the party boarded the vessel, it cast off for a three week voyage around the tip of the continent past the Northern Base, through the Demon Sea, and onwards to Wolf Pack Island.

Several times during the trip, the party also foiled pirates, taking anything the lowlifes had in the way of loot, then sinking their ships with dragon slaves, leaving a trail of survivors in dinghies and broken ship timber all the way around the horn of the continent.

Fillia slept curled up on top of Luna in their shared hammock, while Naga and Lina snuggled up more closely than ever in the vice captain's cabin, which was part of the bargain.

Gourry and Sylphiel got a hammock apiece.

At one point they encountered a sea serpent and Fillia had to transform into her true form to fight it.

This first brought cries of terror from the crew, but when she took the monster on in a one on one battle, flying low and defeating it with repeated laser breath bursts before it cowered from the smaller assailant, screaming in pain and gushing blood into the water.

After that, the crew cheered her for saving them.

Unfortunately for Naga, she had no idea Fillia's laser breath would inflict this kind of wounds and soon fainted, almost falling overboard into the sea.

Some times they would dock along the way and obtain provisions, but most of the voyage was out in deep waters where the wind and the currents afforded the best travel time.

By the end of the third week, Wolf Pack Island's mysterious shroud of fog had come visible on the horizon.

This is where the Demon Sweat really paid off, because the men needed strengthening to prepare for the frightening trek inland on the forbidden isle of Greater Beast Zelas-Metallium!

**Ep 24, Chapter 3**

There was no wind around Wolf Pack Island, so the ship had to be rowed in, and the air was hot and steamy.

As the men rowed, they drank Demon Sweat to keep their nerves steady and their spirits high.

By the time they made it to shore, they were too inebriated to do anything else because they could not stand up.

Lina, Naga, Fillia and Sylphiel all had to cast healing spells and cure poison spells to bring them out of their stupors so they could detach the barge and unload the massive wagon on the shore.

Oxen were led up out of the ship's hold onto land and were hitched to the wagon, a hundred in all.

Lina blasted a clear path through the dense foliage while Fillia sliced through the trees with her laser breath.

Luna and Gourry hacked down trees missed by the larger magical weapons, and men dragged trees and underbrush out from in front of the wagon's massive wheels so the way would be as smooth as possible.

Eventually the island sloped upward and they reached a place where they had to blast a roadway into the hillside.

This gave the oxen time to rest but put a sever drain on Lina and Fillia who were doing most of the demolition.

Finally, Lina remembered the previous time Fillia called for divine refreshment and said, "Hey Fillia, why not call on Ceiphied's power to recharge?"

"Oh!" the dragoness gasped wide eyed, "Why didn't I think of that?" and focusing on her holy magic,

"Ceiphied Ceiphied, maker of light,

Flarelord of day, destroyer of night,

taker of darkness, maker of stars,

smashing pure blackness to the smallest of shards!

Give me the breath of Holy Light!

Father of Fire, Maker of Light,

Bless your servant with the power of light!"

Again the golden rose gleamed brilliantly, and Fillia took flight, transforming into her true form which this time elicited cheers from the crew, and with a few dazzling blasts, cut a smooth pathway up the side of the mountain as straight as a laser beam.

Fillia remained in her true form so she would have maximum strength and got behind the cart to push it up the long hill.

They reached the summit just around sunset, with every person pulling, pushing or adding levitation magic to the load.

At the top of the plateau was a tunnel leading into the mountainside, where they had accessed the Claire Bible.

"When we get there," Lina told Luna, "The next part of the equation is going to be really tricky."

"How so?" Luna asked.

"The portal WE want is UP!"

"Oh, great!" Luna sighed.

**Ep 24, Chapter 4**

As the party finished their evening meal, and it was seeming that everything was going flawlessly, who should show up but Xelloss.

"Oh no!" Fillia shouted, "Not YOU again!"

"Don't you ever learn?" Luna growled.

"You," Xelloss glared, "are on MY territory!" his eyes in full view, "And whatever secrets you have been keeping from me, THIS has gone on FAR too long!"

"You stupid sack of orc turds," Luna unclasped Einlanzer and Warlacher , "I've allowed YOU to go on 'far too long."

The crew of men began to gather around not realizing that Xelloss was Mazoku.

"You guys get beck before you get hurt." Luna instructed the gathering crowd, "He is Mazoku and will not hesitate to kill all of you."

The murmurs of fear from the crew were swiftly followed by mens' screams of terror and agony as various demons came from the surrounding trees and began to close in on the group.

"Looks like you're a little bit too late this time," the Mazoku chuckled, managing to dodge Luna's dive for him.

"Just because I'm a little tired from an honest day's work saving the world-" she dashed at him again, this time ripping his tunic in her grab for him, "doesn't mean I lack what it takes to deal with a piece of shit like you!"

Fillia was at high alert, as were the others.

The dragoness, who now knew that the golden rose on her tail was a devastating weapon against Xelloss held her tail up behind her like a scorpion, ready should he arrive to deal him as much damage as it would.

Gourry, Lina and Naga were all fighting off demons around the periphery while Sylphiel's white magic and half baked dragon slave were not well suited to this situation.

As the fighters of the group battled the demons, Sylphiel's skills of healing were put to good use on those who had been injured by the demons.

Xelloss knew contact with Fillia or Luna was a potentially fatal proposition, but he simply dove and dashed, shooting magic energy bolts at them, while Luna lunged at him with Einlanzer, blocking with Warlacher, and Fillia lanced out at him with her laser breath.

"You won't be allowed to cross into the upper gate," Xelloss said trying to remain cocky even though he was outnumbered.

"We'll do whatever it takes to protect our families and our world Namagomi!" Fillia shouted back defiantly, punctuated by another laser blast.

The mountainside echoed with the rumbles of explosion arrays, fire balls and ice falls. The cattle were spooked and struggling against their yokes. Only the fact they could not agree on which direction to run kept them from struggling hard enough to pull the cart over its wheel chocks.

Xelloss scored a few painful marks on both Luna and Fillia, who were already tired from the day's work raising the cart and the massive crypt to the hilltop.

The battle waged long into the night, both sides growing more and more exhausted, before finally Fillia, on a hunch, ran to a location she had seen Xelloss land before three times, and when he reappeared, she struck hard with the golden rose, explosively driving the Mazoku into the ground like a bullet.

This thunderous explosion knocked many men and a few cattle unconscious while scattering many others to the ground awake and frightened.

Before Xelloss could recover from the stunning blow, she struck again, causing a yet stronger concussion which crushed the Mazoku into a crumpled heap jammed at the bottom of a small pit.

Luna dove into the pit and skewered his shattered body with Einlanzer where a human would have had a heart, which, although painful to him, was not fatal, seeing as he in his true form had no heart or even internal organs.

In his weakened state, however, he did slip into his true form which to their astonishment was by appearance nothing more than a black cone.

With Einlanzer still sizzling through the center of him, he produced an otherworldly groan of agony.

Fillia levitated up to the top of his larger form and with the rose of her tail pressed close to his form, energy began erupting like lightning between the rose and his shape.

His agony intensified the closer the blessed object drew, until he wailed "Nooooooo...!" and seemed to burn completely away as the lighting arced down through his entire form leaving absolutely nothing.


	25. Episode 25

**Episode 25**

"**Death Fog?! Enter The Greatest Nightmare Of Them All!"**

Fillia and Luna together had finally gotten the upper hand on the mischievous monster who had slain thousands of dragons in a single battle.

Both fighters and demons alike stopped and gazed in wonder at the sight as the once feared Xelloss was utterly destroyed at the hands of the one whose entire race had died because of him.

With Xelloss dead, the demons lost the will to fight and began to flee.

Before they could wipe their collective brows in relief however, a tremendous roar filled the air, echoing off the mountainside.

"Here we go again," Lina said to Naga, "Get ready for Xelloss' mother!"

Greater Beast Zelas-Metallium descended from the sky, raining down the Zelas Bird magic, causing the crew to dive under the massive cart in search of protection.

The energy of the attack deflected off of the talisman's of warding, but some of them exploded like firecrackers under the strain, leading Luna and Lina to rally atop the crypt, Lina casting a shield spell and Luna warding off the assault magic with her buckler Warlacher.

"Hey you moron!" Lina shouted out at Zelas as she hove near, "Are you trying to KILL your self here?!"

"There is nothing created which can kill me!" she defiantly screamed back, yet despite her words, she knew that SOMETHING had JUST killed Xelloss, and she had no idea what that something was. As her spell casting ceased, she hovered with a scowl on her wolven face.

"Oh I can think of a few right off the top of my head," Lina declared coolly, yet threateningly, "And as you see, ONE of those just killed Xelloss."

"And there's MORE where THAT came from!" Fillia shouted, tail raised like a scorpion.

"Right now," Luna pointed out, "Your number one concern is what is inside this crypt."

"Oh?" asked Zelas in a haughty tone, trying to remain aloof looking despite her emotions for her 'child' Xelloss now gone.

"What's inside this crypt was designed by Ruby Eyes to destroy magical beings." Lina began in a professorial manner, "And YOU would be just the type of target it would prefer!"

"Me?!" Zelas responded flabbergasted, "That's absurd!" she protested incredulous, "I'm a Mazoku!" she boasted, "-and a HIGH Mazoku at that!"

"What's in here doesn't care WHAT you are." Fillia shouted defiantly, "It kills ANYTHING!"

Lina glanced down at Fillia as if to say, "Why the hell did you just let her in on THAT part of the story?!" and she gave a neck slicing motion to tell Fillia to shut up before she ruined her bargaining chip completely.

"Oh?" Zelas began thinking it would be an easier way to kill off her enemies than fighting them, starting to charge up for another blast of magic against them.

"Only YOU would be the FIRST to die!" Fillia said with a little more wit about her, "WE might have a chance to ESCAPE, but you'd be a total goner in a blink of an eye!"

"Oh is that so?!" Zelas again relented of her attack but aimed an annoyed, suspicious, squinty eyed gaze at the dragoness, "And who are YOU little WHELP, trying to tell ME who will live and who will die?"

"Actually," Lina replied, "She's the one who burned Xelloss into absolute nothingness."

"Why you!?" Zelas began to raise her hands to strike.

Fillia made the golden rose glow brightly in response.

Seeing the rose break into a glow, Zelas once again relented, "Well," she sighed in uncertainty, "It seems we're at an impasse."

"You can make this easy on your self," Lina suggested.

"Or?" Zelas asked, suspiciously.

"Or we can just dump this off right here and be on our way!" she declared in sudden glee.

"You WOULDN'T!" she exclaimed, "I worked HARD for this island!"

"Well then a little more hard work shouldn't be any problem for you!" Luna challenged her.

"What do you want of me?!" Zelas almost wailed but made it more of a demanding tone to cover her emotional duress and seem only annoyed, "You already robbed me of my Black Lotus'." she declared.

"Oh garbage!" Lina shouted in annoyance, "We left you PLENTY of them!" Waving off Zelas' claim dismissively, "Besides, we ONLY picked the FLOWERS!"

"You probably destroyed half the plants in the process!" she suddenly sounded hurt, "They're DELICATE!"

"Oh geez!" Lina rolled her eyes, "Do you HEAR this, people? A MAZOKU is WHINING about a FLOWER!"

"Besides:" Luna rebuked Zelas, "Without those same Black Lotus flowers, eventually you would be dead anyhow, because they are here keeping what's inside this crypt ON the inside of it."

"Wait-" Zelas shook her head a moment incredulous, "You're saying that those flowers are somehow stopping a magic so powerful it can kill a Mazoku?"

"That's what the lady's saying sister," Lina replied coolly, "So in essence," she pressed the issue, "TECHNICALLY YOU already owe US your LIFE!"

"Well so YOU say..." Zelas got cocky and defiant, thinking to throw the argument aside.

"Want me to start peeling off these warding talismans and let you see first hand?" Luna growled.

"Uuuuuuummm" Zelas backpedaled, "Noooooo" waving her hands nervously, "That's QUITE alright..."

"Well then you better give us a helping hand here sister," Lina declared, "Or we'll let this stuff loose on you and then come back when you are dead to worry about the clean up!"

"Wh-wh-why would you do something like that?" she asked fearfully, "I-I-I-I never did anything to you!"

"Because you sent Xelloss for one thing!" Fillia shouted out.

"I-I-I-I-I never told him to harm ANY of you!" she protested, "C-come on guys!"

"You never told him NOT to either!" Luna growled.

"Well," she gasped pleadingly, "Ya...you gotta give your children LEEWAY some times..." she gasped again, "They have to have room to grow up...to make mistakes, learn on their own..."

"Lady," Lina now growled, showing her impatience, "Do you realize just how STUPID you sound right about now?"

"Yeah!" Gourry said, "Even I wouldn't have thought up THAT line!"

Rolling her eyes at Gourry, she turned back to Zelas, "Lets face it lady, if I can CALL you that," pointing a lecturing finger at the monster, "You caused a lot of people a lot of pain and grief, and they all want revenge on you."

"Bu-but Mazoku LIVE on negative energy!" she protested, "What ELSE are we supposed to do?"

"There are a LOT BETTER ways of getting THAT from humans WITHOUT doing them in!" Naga finally chimed in, "Like..." looking around, "Like prize fighting!"

"Prize fighting?" Zelas looked surprised, "You mean where humans get in the small pen and beat each other senseless while others bet money on it?"

"Exactly!" Naga praised the Mazoku. "You get to absorb the pain of the fighters AND all the people who LOSE because they bet on the wrong fighter!" feeling proud of herself for such an ingenious idea.

"But they all live so far away from me!" Zelas protested this idea, "Should I travel there amongst them and risk being exposed to all that OTHER energy they'll be experiencing?" shuddering at the idea of experiencing human happiness up close.

"You COULD host events HERE on Wolf Pack Island you know," Lina suggested, "THAT way its just you, the fighters and the gamblers.

"W-would you help me do this?" Zelas asked pleadingly.

"Only if you cooperate and help us ditch this box full of doom some place far away from our world..."

"AND if you SWEAR to NEVER EVER EVER AGAIN do ANYTHING evil on this planet as long as you live here!" Sylphiel's small voice piped up.

"Well..." Zelas looked down at the ground, looking like she was blushing, but in her monster form, she was covered in fur so you would never know, "I don't know if I -"

-Luna tore a single warding talisman off the crypt, eying Zelas with the steel eyed stare of a cold blooded killer.-

"- OKAY! OKAY! ISWEARISWEARISWEAR!"

**Ep 25, Chapter 2**

The crew cheered at the response of the Mazoku, which, unfortunately, caused her to fall from the sky the same way Xelloss had in the past.

"Ahhhhh!" she wailed, changing into her human avatar, clasping her ears, "Make it stop!"

"Oh..." Lina giggled, then turned to the men, "Ok men, no dinner until this crypt is up through that portal in the volcano!"

A chorus of "HUH?!" came from the men.

"And if Zelas can't do it," she pointed her finger at them, "YOU will have to!"

A collective groan issued from the men, which, as expected, caused Zelas to recover.

Both Lina and Luna covered their smiles to keep anybody from realizing what just happened, because this way the grumpy upset attitude of the men would help strengthen Zelas for the task ahead.

"Furthermore," Lina continued, "We don't rest for the night until the job is done!"

As the men began grumbling but they set about the task of driving the oxen around the mountainside and back so they could aim the long train of oxen into the cavern while pulling the crypt to its final destination in this world.

For several painful hours the men and oxen pulled the heavy cargo around the volcano until they could reach the entrance.

As they neared the tunnel, Zelas in her human avatar flew in ahead of them and prepared to lift the massive object upward through the portal into the realm of the Mazoku.

The cattle had to be taken off as each pair reached the edge of the precipice inside the volcano and led past the cart, which made the pulling team smaller and smaller with each pair taken away.

The cart took the entirety of the night to reach the precipice, and some of the last few oxen died of exhaustion from the work.

Every man that could fit was pushing on the rear of the cart until it finally reached the edge.

From here, Greater Beast Zelas-Metallium transformed back into her true form and with great straining effort lifted four heavy iron chains on each corner of the cart, using all of her might to lift the massive load into the air and up into the cavernous expanse above.

Sylphiel's lighting spell, as well as Lina's lighting spell collectively lit the cavern much of the distance up, but it was too dark to see all the way.

Suddenly, a dull red glow began to appear overhead, as if a dull red sun had come into existence within the cavern.

"Somebody help me..." Zelas began, "Somebody...?!"

A brilliant flash of light blinded everyone's eyes who was within line of sight of the cavern and a thunderous concussion knocked everyone off their feet.

Zelas wailed as she began to plummet, partly on fire and being pulled by the massive weight of the crypt.

Lina was totally blinded and could not see anything, but she had a fairly good fix on the area where the glow had come from. Luna could both see and hear enough and was not knocked down because of her supernaturally fast reflexes.

"Heal my eyes Syl!" she shouted, not sure Sylphiel could hear over the certain ringing in her ears.

Amazingly, Sylphiel's intuition and instincts caused her to put up a shield spell at the last moment which saved her hearing, and she immediately went to work healing Lina's eyes.

An enormous swirling force began flowing out of the portal attempting to envelop the falling crypt.

Lina's eyes were just barely good enough to realize that some kind of very large monster had begun passing through the portal.

Fillia reflexively transformed and flew under the falling cart, in hopes to prevent it from crashing to the ground or falling into the dimensional gate of the Claire Bible.

As the cart fell however, it followed the laws of nature and the heavier side fell faster, turning the entire cart upside down, making it impossible for Zelas to control in her weakened injured condition, and it was threatening to smash her into the rocks where it would most certainly explode into millions of pieces from the immense height it had plummeted.

Out of her holy nature, Fillia cast aside her prejudices and grabbed Zelas to pull her out from beneath the descending crypt, which inadvertently changed its course enough that it instead fell through the dimensional gate into the limitless labyrinth of the Claire Bible, never to be seen again.

Pulling up the burned and wounded Mazoku, she swung upward to the platform where people were all still blinded except for Lina who was in the process of calling up a dragon slave.

"That-" Zelas said weakly, "That...will...not..." she was panting hard even in her monster form, "...not...stop...death...fog..." and she collapsed in Fillia's dragon sized arms.

"DEATH FOG!?" Lina cried out, "OH NO!"

Thunderous laughter cascaded down from the portal, "You know my name?" the Ma-ō asked in derision, "Who would know the name of Death Fog?"

"You-you're one of the Ma-ō!" Lina shouted, "I use your power for magic!"

"This is NOT good, Lina," Luna said, drawing Einlanzer and Warlacher, "They don't CARE for people..." she said trying to warn Lina from making any foolish declarations.

"Puny human," the voice in the swirling blackness mocked, "What good has it ever done you?"

"Until now," Lina declared, "It did a lot of good!"

"Oh it has, has it?" the words were followed by more derisive laughter, "Of COURSE!" the voice went into a patronizing and mocking tone, "Killing your own kind by the thousands is the BEST good!"

"Huh!?" Lina exclaimed in confusion, "What are you TALKING about?!"

"Each and every time you kill a human being," Death Fog informed her, "You give me power!" there was a brief period of silence from the Ma-ō to let it sink in, "And THIS is the ULTIMATE good!" to which more mad laughter followed.

"Perhaps then," Lina said, pondering just exactly what the Ma-ō was truly saying, about how many lives she had taken over her short few years as a sorceress, "Perhaps then I must do something truly evil for once in my life."

"Oh?" the thundering swirl of darkness asked bemused, "and what would THAT be?"

Luna shouted, "Lina! Don't!" but the younger Inverse sibling had recited the spell so many times she had it down to perfection.

"Thou who art darker than even darkness,  
Thou who art deeper than even the night!  
Thou, the Sea of Chaos, who drifts upon it,  
Golden Lord of Darkness!  
Hereby I call to thee,  
Hereby I swear before thee!  
Those who would stand against us,  
All those who are fools,  
By the power you and I possess,  
Grant destruction equally upon them all!  
GIGA SLAVE!"

As the power of the magical energy came upon Lina this time, however, a soft voice called out, and it was not Lina's!

"Skies higher than the highest heavens,

Souls purer then the whitest light,

You who seek the realm beyond where existence becomes chaos true,

Hereby I accept your oath to me, now and forever more.

Let the two be one, and the one be all.

Let those who stand before us witness our timeless embrace.

Let that which is merged in the forges of the deepest depths of hell never be torn asunder,

Let not any source of resistance dissolve this union now called!

ASTRAL UNION!

As the voice declared these words, indeed a deep golden light washed upward enveloping the swirling darkness utterly destroying it, however, at the same time, it also caused the emergence of a glowing female form beside Lina, who took her two hands and while she looked helplessly at the glowing figure was powerless to resist.

"I've waited eternity for this, Lina Inverse," the feminine golden figure said quite softly, "And now, I have come to claim you, even as you have come to claim my powers."

"But..." Lina began, confused.

"With this magic, my love," the one and only Lord of Nightmares declared, "We are now eternally wed."

"W-w-wed...?" tears welled up in the young girl's eyes, "H-ho-how can this be?"

"I let you go before," the golden goddess of chaos continued, "Because I foolishly believed that other had rule over your heart."

"That other?" Lina asked, lost, "Naga?"

"I know who Naga is," The Lord of Nightmares answered, "I do not see her coming forth to rescue you from your vows."

"Vows?" Lina asked.

"Vows." came the answer.

"But-but..." Lina pried her eyes away looking for Naga only to find the other unconscious slumped against a wall bleeding, "But she's hurt!" Lina protested, not feeling anything except this terrible deep dread, "I must go to her!"

"No." came the answer, "Not this time."

"Not this time?" she parroted in fear.

"Never again."

"Never again?" she echoed in terror, a sense of total loss dread and remorse washed over her entire being down to her soul.

"You shall never again leave my side." and with that, the two of them vanished, leaving only Sylphiel, Luna, Fillia and Zelas as stunned witnesses to what had happened.

**Ep 25, Chapter 3**

The four of them stood staring at each other, mouths agape.

They were so totally dumbfounded that even as others began to awaken and ask them what happened, they did not seem to hear them for the longest time, not because of the concussion but because their shock was so utter and total.

The only person who was not in a state of fear or shock was Gourry, who came up to them and with the simplest question of all, "Hey!" looking around, scratching his head, "Ummm, where's Lina guys?"

As the three witnesses to the event blinked and turned to him, Fillia, still in her true form suddenly burst into tears and wailed, "She's GONE!"

"Gone?" Gourry asked, ducking away from the loud dragoness's giant sized tear drops, "To where?"

"She was taken." Sylphiel's soft voice was barely heard over Fillia's wailing.

"The... Lord... of ...Night...mares..." Greater Beast Zelas-Metallium breathed in agonizing gasps, supporting herself partly now with her arms around the dragoness' neck because Fillia was losing her grip both figuratively and literally.

Turning toward Naga, Sylphiel regained enough wit about her to stumble to the unconscious girl and begin healing her head where the blood was seeping out.

Summoning her strength, Sylphiel cast her healing spell upon Naga's wound, staunching the blood flow and little by little bringing her back from the edge.

Luna helped Zelas to rest on the ground and then took hold of Fillia's nearest paw-like hand and stroked it lovingly while the young dragoness sobbed and whimpered at the loss of a friend and the powerfully shocking experience of meeting and witnessing the Lord of Nightmares.

As Naga came to, she looked around blearily, completely unaware of what happened before. She sat up and looked around, still in some pain, and asked, "Why am I in pain?" looking at Sylphiel.

"You were thrown against the – NO DON'T LOOK!" Sylphiel's voice got loud for a moment while she took Naga's cheeks in her hands to keep her looking away from her own blood on the wall behind her, "Let me do something else before you move." and with that, she began a cleansing spell behind Naga taking away the blood so Naga would not see it.

"Wait," Naga began looking around the area, noticing Fillia in her true form crying hysterically, and Luna trying to comfort her, "Where's Lina?"

"We don't really know." Sylphiel's answer being technically true, seeing as nobody knew the exact location of the Lord of Nightmares.

"Did she fall into the Claire Bible labyrinth?" Naga asked in panic.

"No," Sylphiel's soft voice was not any additional comfort but at least it was not an agitation.

"Well WHERE DID SHE GO!?" Naga began to go into full on panic, leaping to her feet racing to where she last saw her dearest beloved Lina, "LINA! LINAAAAAAAAAAA!" she shrilled in her peculiarly nerve wracking pitch.

"Naga," Luna turned toward the now hysterical girl, still holding Fillia's hand, "Naga wait-!" but Naga was about to leap or fall off the edge of the precipice toward the dimensional labyrinth without the benefit of a guide back, so she had to act quickly.

Grabbing the girl's hand she spun her back toward the exit, only for her to spin herself back around with a wide eyed yet almost hypnotized look as she was determined to dive off of the edge in search of Lina.

Still shouting for Lina hysterically, she was turned back five times before Gourry got the clue and caught her from behind restraining her.

She was like one possessed, however, and the only solution Luna could think of was to draw Einlanzer and cut her finger until blood squirted forth.

Sylphiel's eyes widened in disbelief at Luna's seemingly cruel move, yet in an instant she realized it almost didn't work!

Luna came up to Naga who was looking past her struggling against Gourry's strength with a strength driven by desperation, until Luna almost poked Naga in the eye, making the girl reflexively look at the item in front of her, focusing on the blood.

The screaming ended with a freakishly long loud and shuddering gasp, her eyes rolling up into her head and her collapsing, going into spasms.

"This is SO not good," Luna muttered as she put away Einlanzer and scooped up the still spasming unconscious girl, then, in a loud, calm, commanding voice, "Everybody who can move on their own, Luna ordered, help those who need help and lets all get out of this place right now!"

**Ep 25 Chapter 4**

Fillia had recovered enough of her wit and composure to carry Zelas out of the cavern, after seeing Luna carrying Naga that direction.

As they all exited the cavern, the wounded were lain on bedrolls while Sylphiel and Fillia tended to them according to the severity of their injuries.

As the sun rose, the conscious members of the party huddled together to regroup and determine what was to happen next. Zelas, who had recovered sufficiently to stand and walk about on her own, sat in on the discussion, mostly because Fillia happened to set her down at the very same location it was held. She had enough strength to transform into her human avatar, a tall, buxom blond woman with a deep tan and sapphire blue eyes.

"I don't know what to do about Naga," Luna said, "But she is in shock like nobody else here, and for good reason."

"We can't just leave her here," Sylphiel said, "She can't fend for her self and she can't be trusted to not go after Lina in some manner that will get her killed."

"I could watch over her," Zelas offered, but everybody looked at her askance.

"Why would we trust you to- ?" Luna began.

"Why would you trust Fillia here to save my life?" Zelas countered, "We do irrational things some times."

"I still don't trust you." Luna said, shaking her head in doubt.

"Well look at it as a mutually beneficial arrangement:" Zelas openly offered the truthful reason behind her offer, "I feed off of this negative energy you humans generate, which, by the way, you offered me -"

"Lina – offered you..." Luna corrected her sternly.

"Okay – Lina offered me," she continued, "so its to my benefit for her to be here, since her negative energy will sustain me. And SINCE its to my benefit," she continued, "Its in MY benefit to keep her safe while she recovers."

"What is to keep you from making her go completely mad?" Sylphiel's question was pointed at the fact that Xelloss and many other monsters had used madness and confusion to produce negative energy that they were all aware of.

"I gain more power from pure directed emotions than I do madness," the Mazoku replied, "I believe you are referring to how my late son and other lesser Mazoku and their subs used inferior methods over large populaces to feed from, where the quantity was high, the quality was low."

"I see...!" Fillia declared as if a revelation of great significance had come to her, "So for you to have somebody with a targeted, focused, obsession of this form, is of far greater value than the madness of many thousands!"

"I couldn't have said it more perfectly," Zelas replied, actually blushing, "Nothing is more powerful than obsession."

"Hey!" Gourry suddenly spoke up, "Isn't there a PERFUME named something like that?"

Everybody else just rolled their eyes in disbelief.


	26. Episode 26

**Episode 26**

"**Return Home! Endings, Beginnings, and Eternal Remembrances"**

As the four said goodbye to Naga, who stood there trembling, tears running down her cheeks, they too were sad, but they knew it was the only way.

She was lost and confused, and she knew she had no life without Lina and could not live a normal life the way she was now.

Zelas agreed to care for her as long as it took for her to recover, but to never compel her to remain on the island, should she choose to leave.

A magical barrier was set by Fillia upon the portal entrance just so Naga would not, in a moment of desperation attempt to go into either portal seeking her beloved.

The merchants and hired porters for the job all drank merrily of the Demon Sweat, and even offered a jar to Naga in consolation for her losses, but to everyone's surprise, she refused it, saying it would only lead her to a point of despair she would never be able to come back from.

"I'm going to become strong," Naga swore, "And I am going to get my beloved Lina back!" as tears welled up in her eyes, and her voice began to tremble, "She came back and rescued me," she took a breath to still herself, "And I shall go to the ends of the universe to rescue her!" and then she broke down into deep sobbing falling to her knees.

"We wish you well Naga," Fillia said, squatting down patting the sobbing girl's shoulder.

"And if there's ANY way we can help," Luna concluded, also squatting over they crying girl, "Don't hesitate to call on us."

"I will." Naga squeezed out between sobs.

"Well we have to go back home now and tell everybody the bad news as well as the good news," Luna said standing, "Its time to go." then looking back at Zelas who stood over Naga, "I'm going to be checking in on you two from time to time," she said in a warning tone,  
"She had better be ok when I come."

"She will be just fine," Zelas replied, "As I said before, its in my own best interests."

As they all walked together to the gangplank of the low water barge, Sylphiel turned and waved at the two still on the shore.

"We'll miss you Naga-san," she said almost as a whisper, "Please get well soon." and she turned to join the others on board as the gangplank was lifted and the barge was towed on its long thick rope by the main ship, through the thick fog, and out of sight of land.

**Ep 26, Chapter 2**

As the vessel departed from the port of Sairaag, Luna and Fillia on the deck railing, waving to their two friends, Sylphiel and Gourry waved back from the dock, until the vessel was far up the coastline and rounded an outcropping.

"Well," Gourry sighed, "I guess that's the end of adventuring in my life," then he turned to Sylphiel, "What are you going to do now?"

"Naturally Gourry Dear," she replied, "As the priestess of Flarelord Ceiphied, I shall resume my priestly duties in the temple."

"Doesn't that get awful boring?" he asked as they walked along the dock.

"Why don't you try it and see?"

"Oh well," he shrugged, "It can't hurt to try it."

As they arrived at the temple, people were outside lined up to greet the long absent priestess with gifts and well wishes, most of the gifts were food.

"Wow!" Gourry looked at all the baskets of bread, vegetables, fruits, wines, preserves and candies, "Who ever thought being a priestess would taste so good?!"

"Its not usually this abundant," Sylphiel remarked, "I suppose they just missed me is all."

"So what all do priests do here?" he asked her with greater curiosity.

"We preside over marriages, we heal the sick, settle disputes, bless fields, advise the Emperor," she said as she opened up the main temple doors, "And every night, we light the lamps, and every morning we trim the lamp wicks, refill the lamp oil, and light the incense."

"Well what do you do in the mean time?" he asked, "That doesn't sound like very much."

"Have you counted the lamps in the temple?"

"Well, uhhh...no." he admitted.

"There are very many of them here."

"So its pretty busy work then, huh" he scratched his head.

"Very busy." she answered.

"I think I could get used to it." he considered, "Who knows," he pondered everything, turning to the adoring girl who was gazing deeply into his eyes, "Maybe I could even marry and settle down someplace near here."

"I would like that very much Gourry dear." she replied as she wrapped her arms around his waist and tiptoed up to him.

Realizing she wanted to kiss him right then and there, he bent toward her, wrapped his arms around her shoulders and complied with her desires.

**Ep 26, Chapter 3**

The sailors waved after Luna and Fillia only a moment as they had to resume their duties reloading their ship for the next voyage.

Several weeks had passed since the plague had first swept the land of Zephilia and many people had died, and much of the land was devastated.

Still, by the holy spell which summoned the Deathwind out of the land, the land was recovering, and wind blown seeds had found root after recent spring rains.

As summer was coming on, all the land outside of the affected areas was in full bloom and early fruit, the harvests promised to be bountiful.

But at the Inverse house, it was as much a time of mourning as it was of rejoicing.

That evening, they all sat around the family table, Antonio, Lana, Luna and Fillia, eating a meal while discussing what had happened that led to Lina's being taken by the Lord of Nightmares.

"You should have looked out for your baby sister better!" Antonio growled, pointing an accusing finger at his eldest daughter.

"I tried to stop her," Luna rebuked him, "You KNOW she never listened to me." she said in a sulking tone.

"I know," Lana replied to Luna then glaring at Antonio, "Your sister was always spoiled, impulsive and stubborn," her mother tearfully acknowledged.

"I shall truly miss my little girl." Antonio sniffled.

"At least we know she's not dead," Lana comforted herself, but not entirely successful at it, she continued, "But it looks as if we will never get to see her again."

"It seems this girl Naga believes she will get Lina back." Luna replied, doubtful, yet wanting to have and support hope, "I don't see how she can, but she just went through so much, she's strong and she's a fighter. If there's anyone who could do it, I would bet it would be her."

"She must be one pretty fantastic young lady to fight for a friend like that," Lana said in admiration.

"Well," Luna blushed, "I'd say its much more than that..." looking toward the ceiling.

"More than what dear?" Antonio asked.

"More than just friends." Luna said, clearing her throat.

"How do you mean darling?" Lana asked.

"Well," Luna responded hesitantly, "Lets just say that Fillia and I are much more than friends too."

"Oh?" both parents frowned in confusion.

"We're going to get married." she said, drawing Fillia to her with one arm, the dragoness leaning her head lovingly on Luna's shoulder.

"Yo-uuuuuhhhh...?" Lana's jaw dropped in mid-speech.

"MARRIED?!" Antonio's eyes bugged out. Then after a dazed moment, "Well who-who is going to take over the family winery?" he suddenly asked at a loss.

"That's not as unusual as the story gets momma, poppa," Luna added hesitantly.

"It gets worse?" he began.

"Hey!" Lana slapped her husband's forehead, "Don't you DARE use language like that with our children!"

"Well," Luna said slowly, "I'm something called a Futanari."

"You're...?!" their eyes widened even more, then looking at each other as if to say, "How did we not KNOW?!"

"Apparently," Luna blushed, "Its something that came with age..." she continued starting at them despite her feeling uncomfortable and continued, "Fillia and I are going to buy a piece of land not far from the city of Tenor where she owns a shop where we will have a family."

"Have a family..." her mother pondered this, looking at the two girls, one of them being a golden dragon no less, "Well..." she tried to act calm about it all, "When is the wedding?" Lana asked forcing a smile, forcing herself to have the courage to accept this sudden unexpected change in her imaginations concerning her lovely daughter Luna.

"I expect it will be in the coming weeks," Luna said, "Once we have our gowns and invitations all taken care of."

"Will we be invited?" Lana asked hesitantly.

"Of COURSE momma..." Luna took on a hurt look, "Why would you think I would NOT invite my own parents?"

"I'm going to feel really awkward," Antonio put his chin on his upraised palm, looking down at the table, " Giving you away to a girl and all..."

"Well," Luna replied in an almost apologetic tone, "You don't HAVE to..."

"Oh," he said, drawing himself up, "I'll manage," then taking a long draught of wine, "These things," he said while swishing the wine in the cut crystal wineglass, "Like wine," then taking another draught, "Just take a little time is all..."

**Ep 26, Chapter 4**

An invitation showed up in Naga's quarters on Wolf Pack Island, and although she argued against going, Zelas teleported them both anyhow.

When they arrived, she replied, "Trust me," in a low and distasteful note, "This place it LITERALLY KILLING me..." and then as she drank some of the select Inverse wine from a bottle, "We'll have to get some of THIS to take back with us!"

Luna and Fillia found Naga, and giving her a long embrace, convinced her to be one of the bridesmaids.

As the active High Priestess of Ceiphied, Sylphiel presided over the wedding. Gourry looked far different wearing priestly robes with his hair pulled back in a long braid. He seemed more dignified than he had in the past.

The rows of guests were all the patrons of Alyth and Bruno's tavern who had gotten to know Luna over the years, or customers of the Inverse's winery and Mercantile.

A chair was set aside with a wreath on it, and a picture of Lina, and each of her parents had seats on each side of this chair.

As Antonio led Luna to the altar, he held his chin up with stoic pride and dignity, but despite himself, a tear trickled down his cheek.

As he stepped back, Bruno, in a one of a kind tuxedo made of white willow fibers led the petite dragoness to Luna's side, before stepping aside and being seated next to Alyth in her long flowing gown.

Tears of joy and pride ran down Alyth's cheeks and she couldn't stop smiling.

"Dearly beloved" Sylphiel's voice was unusually loud and clear, "We are gathered here in the name of Flarelord Ceiphied's benevolent grace, to witness the holy sanctification of two of his children in holy matrimony.

"Do you Luna Ul Antoinette Inverse, take Fillia Ul Copt to be your lawful wedded wife, to have and to hold, to cherish ...

Naga stood through the ceremony not crying, but she was trembling the entire time, she didn't hear everything being said.

"I do." Luna answered.

"...And do you, Fillia Ul Bethany Copt ..."

"Remember"... seemed to come to her like a ghostly echo while she stood there, and she covertly glanced out of the corner of her eye to see if there was someone nearby casting a spell, messing with her .

"...to love and to honor, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health?"

"I do." Fillia solemnly swore.

"I now pronounce you wife and wife." Sylphiel declared, "You may kiss the bride-s."

The two girls lifted each other's veils and kissed in front of everyone, raising a host of verbal responses, but mostly applause.

The two of them settled down in their new cabin which had been commissioned by Antonio Inverse as both a wedding gift for his daughter, but also as an expansion of his business, as the cottage also included a deep vault in the cliff face where it would be ideally suited for crafting fine wines.

"Be sure you don't get lost and forget where home is darling," Lana admonished Luna and Fillia as they cut the ribbon and Luna carried Fillia across the threshold of their new home.

"I won't momma," she promised, "Now," she said in a hinting manner, "If you will excuse we newlyweds..."

The older Inverses blushed and turned away smiling. They boarded a coach which took off down the hill toward the city of Tenor and the awaiting ship that would take them home.

Antonio sighed and said, "You know," wrapping his arms around Lana, "It wasn't that long ago we were like that as well."

Back on Wolf Pack Island, Naga spent her days casting ice spells, fighting reptilian animals, drinking, and talking to Zelas.

But somewhere off in the universe, every now and then, she could hear that one word, "Remember."

One night, deep in an alcohol induced sleep, she saw the hazy golden outline of a young woman, just a glowing shape in the eternal darkness, reaching out to Naga. "Remember me Naga, please please remember me. I love you forever Naga, please never forget me...me...me...me..."


End file.
